The Miner's Daughters
by TheWomanWhoCodesAndWrites
Summary: AU. inspired by Katniss's own words: "like having an older sister who hates you." They lost their father. Their mother abandoned them. They had to stay strong, for their baby sister. They got reaped and won The Hunger Games, in different years. They rebelled. They won again, at a price. The story of Johanna and Katniss, two sisters from the Seam. Everlark, Johale.
1. Chapter 1: The Sisters

**Author's Note:**

The main inspirations for this fic are Katniss's own words about Johanna: "like having an older sister who hates you", and their interactions in Mockingjay. This story happens in District Twelve, for there are more about it that we know than District Seven, and is obviously AU. I've had to make some character adjustments here and there due to the changes in their circumstances, but I don't intend any of them to be way Out of Character, so please do warn me if I've strayed too far!

Without further wishy-washy, here is the story.

**Disclaimer: **The Hunger Games trilogy, its world, and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing them for the time being, to tell a story I thought they could tell really well.

* * *

**Chapter One**

**The Sisters**

**Johanna**

Their father passed away when Johanna was thirteen and Katniss was eleven.

They had both ran out of their classrooms to grab their seven year old sister Primrose, as soon as they heard that feared explosion sireen. They had both huddled with their mother and sister, as they waited, in vain, for the father who never made it out of the mines again. They had both ran their family, becoming some twisted version of a father and a mother, as their mother's soul died alongside her husband.

"What should we wear?" Katniss asked, an hour before their late father's Medal of Valor presentation ceremony began.

Johanna looked into their meager wardrobe - or what remained of it, after they had to pawn off their nice dresses to buy food the other day. There were only two decent looking dresses left in there, one black and one red. They were both the same size - the dresses and the girls. That of a ten year old. That was what The Seam did to you.

"You wear this," she said, pulling out the one black dress they still had. "The whole district knows red looks terrible on you."

Of course, it wasn't true. Johanna loved seeing Katniss in red; it made her fiery, spunky sister looked so alive.

She walked her family of four to the Justice Building, feeling guilty for telling her sister such a hurtful lie. But as she stood on the stage in her red dress, next to her classmate Gale Hawthorne who'd also lost a father in the explosion, she realized she'd made the right decision. The disapproving looks and accusing glares, thrown at her, from the nasty district gossips, had proven that.

District Twelve couldn't get enough stories of how terrible Johanna Everdeen was as a daughter. Of how she'd already set herself for being Peacekeeper Cray's next whore for she wanted to keep living the cushy life Daddy had provided her with. Had Katniss worn the red dress, they would absolutely be talking about her. Eleven year old or not.

The gossips eventually stopped, as Twelve's residents began noticing the Everdeen girls' sunken cheeks and bonier frames, and that the two oldest girls had been out selling more clothes and household items at The Hob. Suspicions started looming that the widow had gone loony and abandoned her girls, but no one cared enough about Johanna and her little sisters to check on them. Which was great, considering that they would be put in the Community Home otherwise.

Tesserae after tesserae, Johanna attempted to feed her sisters and the shell of her mother. It became apparent, though, that any amount of grains and oils would never be able to stop their hair from falling and their brains from withering. They needed animal products. And that, they couldn't get.

Katniss came home, one day, after a futile attempt to sell some old baby clothes, to the sight of her little sister staring vacantly with her dulled blue eyes, and their big sister putting on the red dress, face smeared with their mother's cosmetics in an attempt to bring out her brown eyes.

"Where are you going?" she asked Johanna, carefully so that Prim didn't hear.

"Cray's," the older girl answered. "The brat would turn stupid unless we put some meat in her."

"Jo!" the middle sister hissed. "You're better than that!"

Johanna turned around and smacked Katniss's mouth.

"Just shut the hell up!" the brown-eyed girl hissed, staring straight into her sister's gray eyes. "Leave me alone, and make yourself useful!"

Later, as she wandered on the streets under her old umbrella, rubbing her own arm for comfort, Johanna hung her head in shame as she thought of what she'd said and done to her precious sister in a fit of rage. But she was never one to think before she acted, and she could just hope her sister would forgive her.

* * *

**Katniss**

That same evening, Katniss wandered around a different set of streets, heading towards the Merchant's Quarter. The place where the wealthier of their district's residents lived - where their mother lived, before she married their miner father and moved to The Seam, a world away from all the luxuries. Johanna hated every single member of the merchant class, and never wanted to step a foot in this area. But Katniss wasn't as staunchly judgemental, and even if she had been, the fact that her sister was about to sell herself to the seedy, disgusting Head Peacekeeper would have been enough to make Katniss swallow her pride.

Rain bucketed down the sky, and Johanna had taken the only umbrella they had, so Katniss was soaked wet. Shivering cold, she made her way to the butcher's bin. There was the only place where she could find free meat. Her head throbbed with hunger, but she soldiered on, knowing that she could stop Johanna if she was quick enough.

Her hopes flew out of the window, when she realized the bin was empty. Heartbroken, she wandered around and reached the baker's bin, where she got nothing but a string of abuse from the baker's mean wife.

The baker's youngest son, Peeta Mellark, though, took a beating from his mother in order to throw Katniss two loaves of fruit and nut bread. Burnt, hence the beating, but still edible .

So, those under her shirt, Katniss ran home grateful and happy. This proper bread will contain a bit of milk, the animal product Prim desperately needed and Johanna was desperate to get. What greeted her when she eventually got home, though, made her heart skipped a bit. Johanna was back, and there was some meat roasting on the fireplace.

"Hey," the older girl said weakly, a smile hadn't been seen since their father died crossing her face. "You're back."

Without a word, Katniss marched - or shuffled, in reality, but in her mind, she was marching - to their kitchen table and dropped the burnt loaves on it.

"Got lucky at the bakers', I see?" Johanna asked. Her attempt to look indifferent clearly failed, for Katniss saw her sister's eye lighting up when she saw the bread.

Prim was nowhere to be seen, so Katniss assumed her little sister had gone to bed, hungry and sad. So, she stood tall in front of Johanna, and prepared herself for a spit-out with her bizarre, endearing, foolish older sister.

"And you got lucky at Cray's?!" she hissed.

In retrospect, Katniss realized she knew better. Johanna didn't look broken or bruised. She walked normally, something those girls who went to Cray's never did right after their ordeals. But still, she needed to ask. She wanted to hear it out of Johanna's mouth, wanted her sister to confirm it.

Johanna stare past her.

"I never made it there," the older girl admitted, sounding so much like an adult their mother failed to be when she said that. "Bumped into Hawthorne."

"You sold yourself to Gale Hawthorne?!" Katniss hissed again. She remembered the boy from school - he'd always teased Johanna when they were younger, once earning a well-deserved punch on the face from the eldest Everdeen girl.

"Nope," Johanna answered sarcastically. "To his little brother. Hell, Kitty, Gale's the oldest, and he's only thirteen. There was no way I'd have sold myself to any Hawthorne in this hell-hole called District Twelve. Any living one, anyway."

"And you're only thirteen, too," Katniss replied tiredly. Her vision started blurring, so she plopped herself down on one of their crooked, rocky chairs. "What exactly happened?"

Johanna let out a huff and plopped down on the chair next to Katniss's.

"We ran into each other halfway through," she said. She yanked the old towel draped at the back of the chair and started patting her dark brown hair, already out of her braid, dry. "He only needed one look to know where I was going, that smart-arse. And he flipped like the busybody he is. Said the same thing you said earlier."

"You are, Joey," Katniss remarked sadly, tilting her head to look at her beautiful, strong sister.

"Trying to feed my sisters isn't at all beyond me," Johanna answered, sounding somber and sweet for the first time in a while. She was always an angry girl, blazing with so much anger that their Pa had to take her to the woods every few days to let her toss an old family ax around just to vent out. Katniss, while fiery, was more level-headed and sensible.

"Anyway," the older girl continued, "I had a spit out with the idealistic and virtuous Gale Hawthorne. Threw in a couple of punches, for good measures - though there's hardly any power in them, these days. And hell, that boy's a brick. Needless to say, I lost badly. Turned out he wasn't that virtuous, after all. See that rabbit on the spit? He gave it to me for free."

The last two sentences was spoken so quietly it sounded like a hiss.

"Is he...?" Katniss asked, letting her question hanging.

"A hunter," Johanna answered. "Like Pa. Now, stop asking questions about him. Just remember we're indebted to him, got it? And to the baker, or whomever gave you those loaves."

"Peeta," Katniss said quietly. "The youngest son."

Johanna clicked her fingers and grinned victoriously, as if she'd just found out something interesting.

"Of course," she muttered under her breath. "Who else?"

"What?" Katniss asked.

"Oh, none of your business, Kitty Kat," Johanna dismissed her sister with a wave. "Now, let's get dinner ready and feed the brat."

Prim was weak, so weak Katniss had to carry her down the stairs, but her little face lit up when she saw the roasted rabbit sandwiches her sisters had prepared. As they watched their beloved little sister devouring the proper meal they'd had in months, Johanna and Katniss knew that every trouble they'd been through earlier was worth it.

Little Primmy's innocent smile worth a thousand lifetimes for them.

* * *

Peeta Mellark looked at Katniss, the next day, as their class walked home from school. Katniss averted his gaze, and looked down at the soil.

(Fifty years on, as the Everdeen sisters' life story made it to the big screen, what she saw on the ground would become a crucial part of the story. But now, let's just say it was a dandelion.)

And our fiery yet quiet middle girl reached some kind of epiphany.

She walked home as fast as her short, skinny legs could take her. She pulled down her tatty school skirt and put on a pair of equally tatty pants. No one were home, except for her vacant, absent mother, so no questions were asked when she slipped out their door clad in her father's old hunting jacket.

Later on, after she'd slid under the dead, un-buzzing district fencing and headed towards where her father had stored his hunting supplied, she would notice that the old family ax, passed down from her paternal grandmother's family before the rebellion, had disappeared. And that would only mean that Johanna was also in the woods, somewhere.

Her resolve almost broke, when she thought of how Prim would be left alone with their mentally ill mother should Johanna and her both perish here. But Johanna's words, spoken to her in a fit of anger the previous day, propelled herself further into the woods instead of back to their crumbling house.

"Make yourself useful."

She didn't bump into Johanna that day, but her older sister found out where she'd been, anyway, when she came home with a couple of kills she'd shot with her bow and arrows.

"You're such a brainless danger magnet, don't you know that?" the brown-eyed girl hissed in Katniss's ear, later that night as they cleaned up after dinner.

"And you're one, too," Katniss answered, plain and honest.

Johanna threw her rag onto the table and started pacing back and forth in the kitchen, hands on her hips.

"Okay," she finally said, looking dejected. "Looks like I'm back to babysitting you, from now on. Hunting partners?"

The way she stuck out a hand for Katniss to shake made it all look like a business deal.

"Deal," Katniss said, shaking her sister's hand, feeling much much older than her eleven years.

**to be continued...**

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****Thanks for reading! And as usual, constructive criticism is always welcomed :)


	2. Chapter 2 : The Hunters

**Author's Note**: Thanks for reading everyone! And special thanks to those who've added this story to the 'following' list: Monkeysong, MockingjayGirl13, dancer27, Angoulini, and . Another special thanks to MockingjayGirl13 for her review, glad to know that I'm doing a good job so far. Hopefully this chapter won't disappoint any of you!

This chapter focuses mainly on Johanna, since her reaping would come first. And Johanna/Gale fans, I can assure you'll see lots of them in this chapter. I ship them like nobody's business :).

Everlark fans need not worry, though. I also ship them like nobody's business, so there will be plenty of their moments to come once we get Johanna through her Games (which would be in a chapter or two). I'm planning on giving both girls equal airtime through the story, but please let me know if you think I'm leaning towards one of them more than the other. And do let me know if I get their characters blended or confused - I need to correct it immediately if it happens!

**Disclaimer**: The Hunger Games trilogy and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. Anything you can recognize from the universe is also hers.

**Chapter Two: The Hunters**

**Katniss**

In the next year and a half, people of The Seam would whisper around about the Everdeen girls and the eldest Hawthorne boy. The three children who'd braved the risk of being whipped or executed in public to feed their widowed mothers and little siblings.

Sometime during their first month of hunting, Johanna and Katniss bumped into Gale Hawthorne in the woods. At first, he looked pissed that they were there too. Soon, though, the three became this little hunting pack. The Seam and the Merchant Quarters would soon grow accustomed to seeing them together, quipping each other and pushing each other around with reckless abandon. They scrunched their faces, as Gale jokingly nicknamed the girls Johnny - a boy's name - and Catnip - a plant which got cats high. Speculations started flowing that Gale was doing both sisters in the woods in a twisted, sick act, but they couldn't care less. Gale was a guy, and he could do whatever he wanted in this male-dominated world. Johanna and Katniss, having witnessed their mother crumbling under the loss of her husband and having realized how messed up Panem was, didn't want marriage and children at all. They weren't afraid of tarnishing their reputations.

Besides, Katniss knew one of the best-kept secrets in District Twelve: Gale Hawthorne and her older sister liked each other.

She pretended she didn't see all those longing looks they threw each other, but secretly, she smiled every time it happened. The two people who would never admit to having feelings at all, consumed by their own feelings towards each other. Katniss knew Johanna would behead her if she dared mention anything though - sister or not - so she just kept quiet. She figured out that it was one of the few things she could do to make her big sister happy.

Katniss survived her first reaping the summer after the bread incident. She considered herself lucky, for she had a couple of secret tesserae under her name. All the other Seam girls got lucky, too, Johanna included. And so did Gale, though they lost another Seam boy that day. They watched as their seventeen year old neighbour, who like them had a widowed mother and several little siblings, got whisked away with the hysterical, crying Merchant girl who'd also gotten reaped.

**Johanna**

"That Merchant girl really hurt my ear," Gale complained, as they sat together in the Everdeens' house that evening. "Yes, she got reaped, and it sucks. But crying won't really help. Capitol won't hear you."

"You've never been reaped, Hawthorne," Johanna snapped, eyeing Prim who was huddled up at the corner with Gale's younger brother Rory doing some kind of homework about mining. Her gentle, sweet baby sister would do the same if, heavens forbid, she got reaped sometime in the future. "Only time knows whether you'll soil your pants if your time comes. How many tesserae you have this year?"

"Twenty four," Gale answered, glaring annoyedly at Johanna for her quip.

"Loser. Kitty and I have more than that, combined," Johanna commented. She looked at her middle sister from the corner of her eye. Katniss looked like she was under fire - and she was, really. There was only one way to explain why on earth they suddenly have extra tesserae grains and oil in their house. Surely, any sane person in District Twelve wouldn't take tesserae for someone else's family.

"Actually," she continued, turning to Katniss, "it's more like all mine. At least until I turn nineteen, and can no longer volunteer for this brainless girl sitting next to me."

Katniss's eyes widened in horror, as she turned her head towards her elder sister.

"What?" Johanna asked her, somewhat casually. "I just won't let you have all the glory, that's it. Don't take this as a charity or something."

In truth, it was a charity, for all Johanna wanted was to live, grow up, and be together with Gale. At least, until he grew tired of her reluctance to have a family and moved on to someone else who would have his kids. However, Katniss didn't need to know that. Johanna knew her sister would never be able to forgive herself for it if she knew the truth.

"Glory?!" Gale snapped, slamming his palm on the table hard that the plates and cups and cutleries shook. "Is that the life you want? To kill other children for Capitol's amusement?"

Johanna didn't answer, for any answer would give the truth away.

Two weeks later, after they'd watched Twelve's last remaining tribute - the crying Merchant girl - drowning when the arena flooded and the girl from Four, Annie Cresta, swam to victory, Gale confronted Johanna again. This time, she answered, telling the truth, for Katniss wasn't around and she was too scared of losing Gale otherwise.

* * *

Six months went by, and before they knew, it was the first anniversary of the fathers' deaths. Katniss's friend Madge Undersee, they mayor's daughter, invited the Everdeen sisters to spend the day in her house to forget their sadness. Katniss and Prim went; Johanna hated the Merchants too much to be able to tag along.

She spent the first half of her day home, eyeing her catatonic mother warily. Each second got her even angrier than the previous ones. She hated her mother's weakness. She hated that her father's no longer around. She hated the Capitol. She hated being born in Panem.

Towards the middle of the day, the crazy woman started crying. And Johanna had had it enough, so much that she had to run off to the woods before she ended up tossing a kitchen knife on her own mother.

She didn't know how many hours she spent tossing her ax, impaling trees and animals and everything else she could impale. It was only when her arm started hurting and her eyes were burning from all the crying she stopped and laid on the frozen ground, staring at the winter sky above her.

"Here you are."

Tilting her head to the source of the voice, she saw all the six feet of Gale Hawthorne there, leaning against a tree. He looked stoic and handsome as usual, with that intriguing flame in his eyes that took Johanna's breath away at times.

"You'll freeze to death," he said, as he made his long strides towards her and hauled her - bridal style - onto his arms. "Let me take you home."

"To the hell with home," Johanna said - sobbed - out, as she whimpered against the thick, damp fabric of his winter coat. "I hate that woman! I hate her! What did I do to deserve her as a mother?"

"Johnny," Gale said, a gentleness she'd never heard before in his voice. "I know how tiring it is, being a parent for your little siblings and all. But you can't give up. Catnip and Prim need you."

"Just for today," Johanna whimpered, refusing to even think about home and her sisters. "Just for this once, Gale. I just want to be a girl. Let me be."

He didn't answer, and she was too tired, too broken to beg again. So, she relented and closed her eyes.

Johanna didn't realize she'd fallen asleep, until he set her down somewhere. She realized, instantly, that this wasn't home. Not that she hadn't been here before, though. Her Pa, when he was alive, had taken her and Katniss here, numerous times.

"Who told you about this place?" she asked Gale. Her voice came out weaker and hoarser than she was used to, and she hated it. She was supposed to be strong. To make Katniss strong - not that it was much needed anyway, but, still. To make Prim strong.

"Catnip mentioned it in passing," he answered, not looking up from the fire he was trying to start on the fireplace. A few kills laid on the table - hers, judging the slash wounds. He must have picked all those animals she impaled in rage on the way.

She got up and headed towards the table. Gale's hunting knife laid there, so she picked it up and started working on a small squirrel. A pair of strong arms on her elbows, though, stopped her. Gale had stood - towered - behind her small frame, looking down at her from above.

"Get off that," he said, smirking. "You're just a girl today, so sit back and leave this to the men."

She did as asked, feeling lighter on her shoulders than she usually was, even just for a bit.

Gale asked her questions and kept a conversation going as he skinned the squirrel and cooked it. When it was done, they sat together and ate, throwing crass jokes at each other and laughing like maniacs.

"You'll never be just a girl, Johanna Everdeen," he said after their third time spraying each other with food from their mouths. "You'll always be Johnny Evermean."

She cackled and spewed a mouthful of food all over her lap.

**Katniss**

When Katniss came home later that day with Prim, belly full of delicious food and heart full of small happiness from seeing her little sister playing with all the toys Madge had, she found her older sister asleep on their bed with a huge, cat-like grin on her normally frowning face.

The next six months saw Johanna and Gale getting really cozy and closer than they already were. They hunted together - with Katniss and in extra sessions without her. They sat next to each other in each and every class they had at school. They spent time eating and talking at Greasy Sae's soup stall in The Hob, sharing happiness over a bowl of broth and chunks of unidentifiable meat. They smiled more. They scowled less. They were happy and carefree.

Katniss watched with a smile on her face, happy that her sister and their best friend were happy together. She, of course, never asked of what Johanna and Gale were, for she knew Johanna would behead her for this kind of question. She assumed they were in some kind of a relationship, boyfriend and girlfriend. And thus, she wasn't really surprised finding the two kissing in the woods on Reaping Day morning, even though she still turned red and ran away from her hiding spot behind a tree.

(Later, as their story unravelled, Katniss would know firsthand that it had been the first time Johanna and Gale had kissed. However, for the time being, she didn't know that. She just assumed they'd done everything those other kids did at slag heap, when they thought no one was watching.)

**Johanna**

Johanna came home just in time to take a quick bath and change into her reaping clothes: a yellowed white shirt and a second hand skirt too long for her legs. She herded her sisters and their mother to the town square, efficient and straightforward like usual. If you knew her well, though, you would see that little smile at the corners of her mouth, and a slight rosiness of a girl in love.

"Stay here," she commandeered her mother and baby sister, as they found a spot in the audience section. Her middle sister, however, was definitely cowering. Katniss might look stoic and brave and all, but Johanna could see the nervousness in her eyes. And on her fingernails, which had been bitten to the bed.

Without a word, she started dragging Katniss through the sea of people, elbowing and pushing until they got to the registration desk. It would have been her fourth reaping, Katniss's second. She shouldn't have been a stranger to all these, but today, she felt like one. There was this nervous, uneasy feeling she couldn't shake, no matter how hard she tried.

(Years later, as she told her story to her teenaged daughters, she would realize that it had been a hunch. Or intuition. Or perhaps even a warning sign from her late father. Regardless of whatever it was, though, she knew that she'd done the best she could about it. And she had no regrets.)

She watched as they pricked her sister's finger, then hers. Afterwards, she walked Katniss to the roped area intended for the thirteen year olds.

"Be smart, and don't volunteer for anyone. Got it?" she asked the younger girl.

Before Katniss could answer though, she'd planted a quick kiss on the younger girl's temple and left for the fifteen year olds' section. On her way, she bumped into Madge Undersee. Katniss's classmate and only friend of the same age.

And something told Johanna that she should tell this girl what she was thinking about.

"Undersee!" she called the girl.

Madge stopped and turned around, looking questioningly at Johanna. Johanna knew she must have been in shock. They had never talked before in their lives, past some nods of acknowledgements and tentative waves for Katniss's sake.

"Listen," Johanna said, placing two firm hands on the girl's shoulders. "I might get reaped today, and my brainless sister might try to be heroic and volunteer. If they call my name, try to gag her or something. Understood?"

Madge nodded and placed her hand above Johanna's, squeezing it firmly.

The rushing crowd of children separated them, and Johanna sneaked her way in to the fifteen year old section, standing at the edge for that was the only spot she could get. Somewhere in the middle, she spotted Gale, standing among the Seam boys with the stoic expression on his face. She turned her head to hide her blushing, not wanting anyone to know that she'd kissed Gale Hawthorne. Thankfully, no one really noticed anyway. The matter of who'd kissed whom was always an important one in this town, except on Reaping Day, when the matter of who would get reaped took precedence.

Within a few minutes, their escort - Effie Trinket, with her pink wig and ridiculous Capitol accent - had come up the stage, and welcomed them to the Seventy First Hunger Games.

That video introducing Hunger Games and all its outrageous details were played, and Johanna sucked in her lips hard to prevent herself from spitting on the ground. As much as she would like to show her dislike, she didn't want to end up with a Peacekeeper's bullet through her head. She needed to live for her sisters. And she wanted to live, for Gale Hawthorne had given her yet another reason to.

Trinket opted to reap a boy first, and soon, that one unplanned youngest son of a Seam family Johanna barely knew was on the stage. No one cried for him, not even his parents and numerous siblings. If anything, they seemed to be happy to be rid of him. And Johanna felt ashamed about this, but she was too, happy. Not because the boy got reaped. She almost felt sorry for him, in fact. But because it meant that Gale was safe, for yet another year. He'd accumulated more tesserae this year, bringing his grand total to thirty three, and it was close to flirting with devil.

Gale turned to look at her. She looked back at him, not sure whether she would beam or not. She decided against, though, for she could see the stupid escort crossing over to the girls' reaping bowl. Something in her gut suggested that a bad thing was about to happen.

"And our lucky lady is... Johanna Everdeen!"

**to be continued**

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Thanks for reading. And feedbacks/criticism are always welcomed :)


	3. Chapter 3: The Crying Tribute

**A/N: **Thanks for reading everyone! Special thanks for all my followers (and welcome to als909 and DownWithDumbles, my new follower), to DownWithDumbles for making this one of her favourite stories, and to MockingjayGirl13 for the review. Hope you all like this chapter as well!

This chapter is about Johanna's journey from District Twelve to the Cornucopia. Hope I won't disappoint any of you.

**Disclaimer:** The characters and the universe belong to Suzanne Collins. Parts of the original story have been integrated to this one, so everything you recognize is hers too.

**Chapter Three: The Crying Tribute**

**Johanna**

_Johanna. Everdeen._

For a few milliseconds, Johanna could just stand there on her spot, numb as her own name - given to her by her late great-grandmother - echoed in her head like a sickening chant. Then, the devastated, panicked look in Gale's eyes registered in her brain, and she knew that she had definitely been screwed.

The Peacekeepers had to basically drag her to the stage, for she was so numb she couldn't even feel her feet. The Capitol audience, watching this reaping eagerly on their flat screens, would notice that her head was turned backwards, as much as humanly possible, her eyes darting between three different spots in the crowd. She wasn't crying, unlike last year's female tribute from Twelve. She just looked purely shocked and pale.

(A few Capitol citizens would also notice that, in the crowd, two young girls were in this kind of a weird hug. One of them, blonde and blue eyed, had an arm around the other girl's waist and a hand clamped over the mouth of her dark-haired, gray-eyed friend. A few of this few would notice the slight family resemblance between the dark-haired young girl with the shocked female tribute on the stage, and with a clearly hysterical younger girl in the audience.)

Trinket made the two tributes do this bullshit handshake - which they did anyway, for they didn't know what else to do. Peacekeepers then whisked them away into two separate rooms in the Justice Building, nice and lavish yet dreadful for Johanna.

It was in that very room that it dawned to Johanna that she'd been reaped, and was going to the 71st Hunger Games in just a few hours. That she might not see Katniss and Prim again. That she might not see Gale again.

For the second time in just over six months, she found herself too tired to be strong. And so, she allowed herself to be just a girl, and start crying.

She wasn't sure, though, if her tears were that of sadness, or of anger.

Johanna's emotions were still all over the place when the door opened and her mother and Prim walked in. The former was pale as ghost. Not that she hadn't been pale for these past eighteen months anyway, but she definitely looked paler. The latter was hysterical, if not manic. All her words came out in garbled shrieks, blended into each other Johanna couldn't possibly get what she said. All Johanna could do was to hug Prim tightly and to look at their mother. Even at the brink of death, she was still unable to forgive the woman for the abandonment. For having the heart to die with her father when he passed.

(Years later, as Johanna looked at her husband and their children, and realized that no matter how much she loved her children, she would still die with her husband should he pass, she finally understood her mother.)

"Take this," her mother said quietly, just before she left. Johanna stood there in silence, as the broken woman placed a necklace - a long chain with a pendant bearing forest-coloured stone - around her neck. "This belonged to your grandmother, then to your father. Your father gave it to me."

Well, Johanna could have had more use of this necklace one and a half year ago, when she and her sisters were starving, instead of when she was about to die like this. But then, Johanna loved her Pa. This necklace was his at some stage, and she could consider it part of him, so she didn't rip it off.

She was still crying and quiet, when her mother and Prim left the room.

Next came Katniss. Starting up strong and brave, the younger girl too was reduced to tears, as she looked at her sad, defeated sister.

"Ssh," Johanna said through her own tears, as she took Katniss into her arms. Her sister felt small yet solid in her arms - different from when they last shared a hug, the day their father died. Their hunting had shaped their bodies, building up muscles where needed. "Take care of the brat and the woman for me, Okay? Beat the dead log up if you need to. She needs to stop checking out. If I die..."

She couldn't finish her sentence, for Katniss had wriggled out of her arms and slapped her hard on the face.

"Don't you speak like that, Jo!" the younger girl hissed fiercely, tears forgotten and sadness cast aside. "You'll come back to us! You'll go and hide, and wait until..."

"Until it's time to kill?!" Johanna hissed back, cradling her hurting cheek. "Kat, you know I've never..."

Her sentence hung in the air, for the Peacekeepers had opened the door and barged in. Sighing, Johanna planted a last kiss on Katniss's temple. She watched quietly as the Peacekeepers dragged her sister away and closed the door, leaving her once again alone.

"I love you, Kitty," she whispered, the forgotten tears once again streamed down her face.

Her next visitor was, surprisingly, Madge Undersee. The quiet girl didn't say much, just a few consolation words which didn't really help Johanna. But then the girl promised to take care of Katniss, and that, to Johanna, meant way more than any consolation words. At the end of that visit, she'd made a slight change of heart. She no longer hated every single Merchant alive. She now hated every single Merchant alive, whose name wasn't Madge Undersee.

Next, came two people she never thought would visit: the baker and his youngest son. Merchants. She glared at them, for she hated Merchants, even though she'd just made an exception for Miss Undersee.

"Girl," the baker started, looking at her kindly despite her harsh treatment. "I'm sorry."

So, he was sorry. Yes, she got it. But still, she had been reaped. And there was nothing these Merchants could do to save her.

She was too sad to say her usual remarks, though, so she kept her mouth closed. She was sure at this stage her gaze was closer to a dagger than a gaze, but she didn't care. Merchants - except Miss Undersee - were always Merchants. Always thinking they were better than everyone else in Twelve.

"We'll make sure your sisters and your mother are fed," the baker's son - Peeta Mellark, the one who'd always stolen glances at Katniss when he thought no one was looking - chimed in. At thirteen year old, the boy had already spoken eloquently and firmly like a man. There was a strange feeling in Johanna's chest as she looked at this boy. He felt like family. Like a little brother.

(A few years later, she would realize that it was another intuition, but for now, she would put it down to his skills with words and the fact that he seemed to have a crush on her little sister Katniss.)

Peeta regaled Johanna with a couple of funny stories of what had happened recently in the bakery, and made her laugh for a bit, through tears. Peacekeepers soon came, though, and whisked the kind boy and his father away. As she watched their backs through the gap of the door, Johanna put yet two other exceptions: the baker and his youngest son.

When the door opened again, it was Gale they brought in. Handsome and tall, steady and stoic, like usual. There was this one look in his eyes that Johanna couldn't decipher, though. It was like a fire, ambiguous and powerful and burning.

"Johnny," he called her, as soon as the door closed behind her. "Johnny."

She ran up to him and hugged him, burying her face onto his shirt. It didn't quite smell like him - must have been his father's - but it did radiate the warmth that Johanna had learnt to know and love. They stayed like that for a bit. Then, Gale freed her and grabbed her on the arms, looking into her eyes.

"Listen," he said, throwing a quick look at the door. "I don't have much time here. I need to say something to you."

Johanna nodded, too sad and overwhelmed to make any smart reply.

"I want to call you my girl."

She just looked at him, puzzled. Surely, he must have been crazy or something. She was about to die.

"You know I'm about to die, right?" she asked him, looking down on the floor.

"No," Gale answered, shaking her body with his arms. "You're not going to die. You'll live. You're Johnny Evermean. Strong and vicious."

"Okay," she replied weakly, smiling at him. "If I come out alive, I'll call you my boy."

He pressed his lips on hers. The kiss was clumsy, for Johanna was very inexperienced, but it was sweet and sad. They broke apart as they heard the door creaking, and he left with his head up high before Peacekeepers got any hand on him.

Johanna touched her lips and cried again, crumbling down from the myriad of emotions. Those recordings of Johanna in the car, being taken to the station, and on the platform, waiting for the train to Capitol, all showed a shaking, trembling mess of a crying girl.

(Four of the Career tributes would latter laugh, together, as their mentors showed them an illegal copy of this and of all other post-reaping activities in other districts. They would quickly dismiss Johanna and moved on to the next person in the recording, her district partner from Twelve.

As they each laid under the mercy of Johanna's ax, though, the Careers would realize that they had been wrong about Johanna. And it would have been too late. She would have killed them, efficiently like she killed her kills in the woods outside Twelve's district fencing.)

They pushed her into the train carriage and shut the door. She hated it, and for a while, all she could do was standing there hitting and ramming on the carriage door, yelling at them to open it and let her back out to The Seam. It was only when the train started moving that she realized it wasn't going to happen, and slumped back onto the floor, crying tears of anger and devastation.

"Johanna, dear," Effie Trinket said, standing awkwardly near her. "Let's find you some clean clothes and get you some hot chocolate. We have nice, nice things here!"

Johanna wouldn't budge, so Trinket left. The escort came back, though, with someone else in tow. Haymitch Abernathy, Victor of the 50th Hunger Games and Twelve's resident drunkard, whom Johanna often saw in The Hob buying that foul liquors from a one-armed woman called Ripper.

"Well, well, well," the man said, smirking. "Isn't Little Miss Jo here look a bit wonky? Doll, you look like a train wreck."

The fact that this man, who most of the days couldn't even see straight through the alcohol fumes, was ridiculing her was too much for Johanna. Screaming, she jumped up and pinned him against the carriage wall, causing Trinket to shriek.

"Easy, easy," Abernathy said again. His smirk was still there, as if he was unaffected by Johanna's action. Johanna froze. The one and only person not to get scared of her outburst was her Pa. No one else had achieved it so far. Even Katniss and Gale, who were her closest friends.

That sliding door separating a boarding foyer area of the carriage and the room behind seemed like an acceptable escape, suddenly. Johanna stepped aside and opened the door. And she marched in. Without any words, or further thoughts.

"Got her in," she heard Abernathy saying to Trinket, behind her. "If she acts like a little kid again, just do what I did."

She turned around to them and gave them one of her dagger glares. Trinket shrunk in fear, but Abernathy just laughed.

What a great luck it was to have an annoying escort and a mentor who was always strange from all the alcohol.

Trinket took her to her sleeping compartment and left her alone. The room was twenty times better than her room in her house - which was Katniss's, Prim's, and their useless mother's room, too. Here, she had a fluffy-looking bed, covered in expensive looking sheets and throw, and a big wardrobe. Johanna slid the door open, and gasped when she saw more dresses and pants and skirts and blouses than she had ever owned inside. She tried not to think of how she could use all of these to send Katniss to school and events decent-looking, so that those mean girls could stop teasing the middle Everdeen.

And as much as she hated admitting, she could use some of these, too.

She stripped off and chose a pair of white pants - an impractical colour at The Seam, hence she'd never had one - and red blouse. She looked at herself in the mirror, as she buttoned up the blouse. The girl looking back at her wasn't Johanna Everdeen. She was well-clothed, yet sad and blotchy-faced, with her long dark hair in a fancy braid instead of her usual practical single one. And she didn't want to be this stranger, so she took out her hair and put her single braid back on. But even with that, she still saw this cowering, snivelling stranger. Frustration hit her for a while, as she tried everything to look like her normal self, but then, a moment of epiphany came for her.

She'd been watching the Games - mandatory viewing - for several years now. She remembered most tributes from Twelve, especially the last ones.

The girl who went to the 69th Games looked strong, athletic, and had scored a nine in her individual training. She got killed in the first week, headhunted by those stupid Careers from One and Two.

The girl who went to the 70th Games, on the other hand, was hysterical and crying, and had scored a three in her individual training. She was left alone until the very end, when the gamemakers drowned her and several other tributes.

Johanna cackled, as a sophisticated, evil plan began forming in her head.

(As she told her biographer, later in her life, why she acted the way she did, Johanna would realize that she had actually been slightly mentally disturbed when she made this plan. But for now, it felt fantastic and wicked, and she liked it.)

The next few days in the train passed, with her acting like a strange combination of her strong yet shy middle sister, and her sweet, vulnerable baby sister. Trinket assumed that it was the real Johanna, and that the crying girl was just 'overwhelmed by the thought of representing her district in such prestigious event'. The escort kept praising Johanna for all the table manners and sweet demeanour, and Johanna had a good laugh to herself every night. Her district partner - whose name she didn't even want to bother remembering, not when she had to kill him or let him get killed to go home - didn't know her well enough to be able to point out that she was acting. And so did Haymitch Abernathy, although in the drunkard's case, he was smart enough to realize there wasn't a single thing right with the way his girl tribute behaved.

They arrived in Capitol, and Johanna had the first taste of beauty base zero, during which she nearly unleashed her true self and strangle all these stupid, colourful people who were adamant to pull all her body hair out. Her stylist - who was kind of fake and lame - put her in a skimpy coal miner costume, and she got paraded in a chariot with her district partner, burning red from anger as she felt Capitol men's hungry eyes on her. Later that day, they took her to what would be her living quarters for the next few days. It looked even much better than the train, and Johanna closed her eyes for a while, imagining how happy her little sisters would be if their house looked like this.

She didn't really train during the next few days. She was down there in the training floor, watching other tributes and analyzing them, as she curled up at a corner and made herself cry by imagining crazy, tragic scenarios involving her sisters and Gale. She stayed away from any axe or similar weapons, in case she got too provoked and gave herself away. The other tributes ignored her, thinking that she was one of those lost causes. Her own district partner even chose to ally with tributes from other districts; he viewed her as a liability. Well, he would have been a liability to her, that clumsiness and everything. So she just let him be.

Come individual training, she managed to botch hers so epically they gave her one out of twelve. Trinket, the boy tribute, and the stylists gave her this sad, sorry look. But Abernathy looked undisturbed. She had some suspicion that he had known her plan all along. And it was confirmed the next day, as he sat her down for her interview training.

"Smart plan, Doll," he said to her the first thing. "What's your inspiration?"

She tried looking at him as if he was crazy or speaking in another language.

He snorted.

"Nevermind," he then said, waving her off. "I assume you know what you're going to do tomorrow, so let's just end it here. Go and have some cake."

The mentor gave her a secret wink when she came back from her emotional interview the next day, black mixture of mascara and crocodile tears streaming down her face and onto her white dress. She winked back at him in response. Of all the people currently in Capitol, he was definitely her favourite.

* * *

**Katniss**

Her mother and Prim didn't know, but Katniss spent her nights crying onto Johanna's pillow, in the bed they'd shared for more than a decade.

With each day, she grew much and much older. Each hunting trip felt like a torture, with a quiet, broken Gale by her side, and her screaming soul in her body. They'd had to move Johanna's ax out of their little weapon hole and hide it somewhere else. None of them would be able to think straight otherwise. They made their kills, take their bags to The Hob and traded, doing their usual merchant trades, and brought food home to their families. The only difference in their daily activities was the lack of those careless, blunt comments coming out of Johanna's mouth.

And it killed them both. At least, it killed Katniss.

These days, she found herself hating her mother more than before. If it hadn't for the woman's extended wallowing in self pity and sadness, Johanna wouldn't have had to take that many tesserae. Her sister would still be here, getting angry and breaking things and saying awful stuff and caressing her hair as they fall asleep and kissing Gale.

"Ma," she said one morning, as she found the woman crying, again, over her father's photograph. "Pa's gone. And so is Jo. It's only three of us here, now. I need your help."

The words felt unnecessarily harsh, and Katniss felt guilty for them afterwards, but she felt a lot lighter after she'd said them. She had to leave soon, so she excused herself before her mother could respond, but when she came back home, the woman was on her feet and busy, tending to a small Seam child who had broken his leg falling off a roof.

She wished she'd said that much earlier. But maybe, all it took for the woman to see what she'd done was losing one of her daughters.

As much as possible, Katniss tried to convince herself that they hadn't lost Johanna, yet. Every day, they would sit and watch those pre-Hunger Games events, even if Johanna was so unpopular they could only catch glimpses of her. The longest time they'd gotten with her was three minutes, during her pre-games interview. Johanna was crying that night, black tears - it freaked Katniss out, before Madge showed her what a mascara was and what it did to you when you cry. It wasn't that Johanna had ever been shown not crying, anyway, but the fact that the person on the screen was a stranger torn Katniss apart. The Johanna she knew was bold, strong, and sassy. The sniveling, crying coward on the screen was just someone who looked like Johanna and shared her name.

She went to bed sleepless that night, consumed by thoughts of what they'd done to Johanna. Surely they must have done something, for her sister was totally broken. She turned up at the town square two hours before the Games started, staring at the screen displaying useless commentary banters between Flickerman and Templesmith. The two men mentioned many, many tributes, the boy from Twelve included. They had never once, though, mentioned Johanna.

She scored one in training, Katniss reminded herself gently, trying not to think further of how they'd forgotten about her sister. Perhaps they deliberately give her such a bad score so that the sponsor choose that handsome boy from One.

At some point, Madge joined her, flanking her from the right. Katniss turned for a bit - too afraid to let her eyes leave the screen for too long, in case the Games started - and saw her friend in a red dress, a glinting gold pin on her chest. She nodded to Madge in acknowledgement, and thanked the Merchant girl, quietly, for coming. Madge put an arm around her in response, and Katniss almost cried. No matter how hard Johanna had scolded Katniss every time she did something stupid, the older girl would always come back and put her arm around her upset younger sister later, whispering a steadfast "I love you".

Prim and their mother came along a few minutes before the Games started, plopping themselves down quietly on Katniss's left. All her family was here. Complete. Well, they would never be complete again, of course. Pa would never come back. And Johanna might not come back.

Katniss gritted her teeth and squinted at the screen, just so that she could detach herself from this Games, until she could leave.

Somewhere between her and the screen, stood the Hawthorne family - Hazelle, the mother, Rory and Vick, the little boys, and baby Posy, the girl who would never meet her father. Gale was nowhere to be seen. Katniss assumed that he must have been spending his entire morning in the woods with his fear and grief. She'd never had a boyfriend, but she assumed that if she had one and President Snow was sending him to death, she would have been devastated.

(Later in her life, she would know, firsthand, what it felt like having her beloved taken away by President Snow. That would make her realize why her mother had checked out when her father died, for she almost checked out herself.)

Gale did appear at the end, just as Templesmith started his start-of-game announcement. Katniss saw him standing right next to the screen, a bit to the side. His eyes was red and swollen, and he averted the crowd's gaze. Broken.

Katniss held her breath in, as the golden Cornucopia - the very thing Johanna and her had fantasized to recreate in their backyard when they were six and four - appeared on the screen. Something drummed in her ear, as the twenty four tributes started appearing, being lifted from somewhere underground on their plates. One by one, they started doing face close-ups. Male One. Female One. Male Two. Female Two. And so on and so on, until Johanna's face, blotchy from crying and terrified as that could be, appeared on the screen.

Katniss reached her hand to the screen, before she realized she couldn't touch it, and even if she could, Johanna wouldn't know that.

Everything from then on happened in a blur. The tributes started running to the Cornucopia.

Screams echoing from everywhere - the huge speakers they put for the purpose of the Games, and the members of the audience who'd seen a tribute being stabbed or hit to death. Katniss tried with all her might, but she couldn't find Johanna in the bloodbath scene. She opened her mouth to yell for her sister, but Madge's firm hand on her forearm brought her back to District Twelve, reminding her that no matter what she did, she couldn't possibly reach Johanna right now.

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for reading everyone! I'll be overseas for two weeks with limited internet connection, so I'm not sure when I'll put the next chapter up. I'm aiming to update regularly, though, so I'll keep writing and sniffling around for internet connection. Till we meet again!


	4. Chapter 4: The 71st Victor

**AN: **Thanks for reading everyone, and welcome to my new follower Caprisky! Special thanks for LittleRed, dancer27, and MockingjayGirl13 for the reviews. Glad that you are enjoying this story. Another thanks to MockingjayGirl13 for favouriting the story - hope you'll keep enjoying this!

**Disclaimer: **Suzanne Collins own The Hunger Games. This chapter has a (minor) O.C I created for plot purposes, you'll spot him right away :).

* * *

Chapter Four: The 71st Victor

**Katniss**

The bloodbath went on for what seemed forever, and Katniss died a bit inside with every second of it. It wasn't until it was over, the Career pack from One, Two, and Four had run away with their weapons and packs, and the dead tributes' statistics and bodies were displayed that she could really breath. Johanna was still alive.

The eldest Everdeen girl appeared on the screen a few minutes later, perched on top of a tree. Katniss's heart again tightened, as she realized Johanna had neither weapons nor supplies with her.

Her heart tightened more and more with each passing day, as her older sister grew hungrier and hungrier, weaker and weaker from the sadness and the lack of food. The exclamations of delight from the District Twelve crowd every time their boy tribute received little sponsor items on parachutes stung her like salt did fresh wounds. Johanna had never been sent anything. That mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, had chosen the boy.

The whole district hung their heads as the boy died, whispering how their hope for this year had too, gone. Katniss scowled at them and stomped on the ground, telling them that her sister would win, before storming off to cry in the bed she'd shared with Johanna because she couldn't really believe what she said, no matter how hard she tried.

And then, things just changed.

There were only a couple of tributes left at that stage: The handsome Career boy from One. The cruel boy and the pompous girl from Two. The fast, swift girl from Four. The smart boy from Five. The ax-wielding boy from Seven. And Johanna, the small girl from Twelve, who was still perching on a tree.

Long story short, boy from Two found boy from Seven and had him in this long, grueling, bone-snapping and head-slamming wrestling match. Boy from Seven couldn't do much to overpower his bigger opponent; his ax laid out of reach, a few long feet from his hand. Out of nowhere, came Johanna - skinny and gaunt, but stoic and fiery like the Johanna Katniss knew. There was no trace, even the slightest, of that snivelling coward crying her mascara onto her interview dress, as the eldest Everdeen girl tossed the ax right onto the chest of the cruel boy who'd just snapped the neck of the original bearer of the ax. District Twelve gasped, as two cannons sounded and Johanna walked off with her bloody, newly acquired ax.

Reporters began descending to Twelve for the coming days, as Twelve's little heroine Johanna Everdeen went through two of the remaining Career tributes. They barged straight to the Everdeen house, and Katniss had to stand up and answer all their questions, for there was no way she would allow her only half-functioning mother or her kid sister to do so. They asked her who the real Johanna was, the crying girl or the vicious killer.

Katniss refused to answer, even though she knew her sister was way closer to the latter than the former.

The final was between Johanna, boy from Five, and the handsome boy from One. They'd released some kind of crazy snakes on the ground. Boy from Five had no weapon. He died almost instantly. Johanna and handsome from One were cornered to a spot in the arena. She saw him before he saw her. A cannon sounded a few seconds later, and Johanna Everdeen of District Twelve was announced Victor.

Katniss spent the night sitting on her bed with Johanna's pillow in her arms, overwhelmed by happiness that her sister would come home, and sadness that Johanna had to kill several other kids to get back to her and Prim.

* * *

**Johanna**

The first thing Johanna did, when she finally opened her eyes after a few days of deep sleep, was smiling.

She had done what she was meant to do. She had proven to those stupid Careers they were wrong. She had brought victory back to district Twelve, the first time in the last twenty one years.

She would be back at Twelve, at her sisters' sides, in just a few days. And she would finally be able to call Gale her boy, and to kiss him again. She would be filthy rich from now on. Those bloody Merchant bitches wouldn't be able to point at her and her sisters and laugh at their tattered clothes again. Johanna would make sure Katniss and Prim had the best, most lavish of dresses and skirts, and that they ate the best of meat and the freshest of grains. Hell, she would even buy Gale's family new clothes and lots of food if he would let her. Sure, it would all come from Capitol's money, but she'd earned the money, through those weeks of hunger and crying her eyes raw. Who had the right to say that she couldn't use it?

She was still smiling and daydreaming when Abernathy - technically her mentor, though in reality he'd never done her anything aside of that thirty-second of interview training - walked in. For the first time in a while, he looked sober. And haunted, and worried.

"Firstly, congratulations on being alive," he said to her, as he plopped down on the chair next to her bed. "I've always known you would be, but still, good job."

"You didn't send me anything," she confronted him, waving him off. "That said so much of your faith in me, I believe."

"Indeed, yes," Haymitch replied, a wicked, meaningful smile on his face. "Why should I send you things you don't need?"

"I could have done with some food," she said warily. "Those damned fruits were only so satisfying. My stomach grumbled all night."

The mentor just smirked.

"You're the deception expert, Doll," he told her, as Johanna glared at him. "You know why I did that."

"Stop beating around that bloody bush, Old Man," she snapped at him. "Just tell me."

"Alright, Miss Impatient," Abernathy responded, chuckling to himself. "Say I gave you that food you desperately wanted, or an ax made of diamonds or whatever they say is in fashion. Wouldn't those Careers start headhunting you?"

"How the hell would they know?" Johanna snapped again. She was smart enough to hide up high trees others couldn't climb. She was sneaky enough to steal items off dead tributes when no one was looking - not even the stupid, buzzing, flying cameras. How the heck would they know she'd been sent some food?

Abernathy let out a sigh and looked at her as if she was some kind of idiot.

"I guess you didn't know what we mentors get to do, my darling Doll," he said, a defeated look on his face. "We knew every single thing happened in that bloody arena. And we'd find ways to send our tributes messages, if we feel need to. I was just helping you laying low - laying high, actually. You, dear Doll, climbed like a monkey."

Now that she'd heard it, the truth hit Johanna right in the head. Though his ignorance, her mentor had helped her winning the Games she'd created for herself. Without too much carnage.

For the first time since she threw that ax on the boy from Two, she counted how many kids she'd had to kill to achieve her victory. One. Boy from Two. Two. His district partner. Three. Girl from Four. Four. Mister Handsome from One.

Blood of four people in her hands.

Johanna dry-heaved onto her hands, as the memory of the sight and the smell flooded her brain. She cried some genuine tears, for the first time since she had that epiphany in her sleeping compartment.

"Welcome to victory," Abernathy said, a cynical tone in his voice. "It'll get better with time, if you're lucky. And if you aren't, welcome to insanity."

It took Johanna almost all her will to stop crying. When she eventually managed, she knew she'd never be the same, again. Johanna Everdeen had never killed a person, and perhaps would never do, despite all those threats she made in her frequent fits of anger. Johanna Everdeen, Victor of the 71st Hunger Games, had killed four other children on her way to victory, without much warning or signs or giving them chances to escape.

She thought she might know why Abernathy drank.

The door creaked open, and two men slipped in without warning or pleasantries. One of them had bronze hair, and these sea-green eyes which twinkled on her handsome face. Johanna instantly recognized him. Finnick Odair, the boy from Four who'd won the 65th Games when he was fourteen. Her first tribute crush, and perhaps the only one to this date. The other had brown eyes - very alike to hers, she observed - and reddish hair. Johanna remembered him, too. His name was Ash Mason, and he was from Seven. He won just two years ago at age seventeen. She had been the biggest admirer of his skills with axes, when his Games was airing. She'd even copied several of his movements she saw on the screen, which turned out handy for hunting.

"Victor's breakdown?" Ash asked, raising an eyebrow as he saw Johanna's face.

"You needn't ask, Killjoy," Abernathy answered warily, waving the young man off. "I know you can smell Victor's breakdown from a mile's distance."

Ash completely ignored the remark and sat down, uninvitedly, next to Johanna's feet on the bed.

Finnick, too, climbed up to Johanna's bed. All Johanna's childhood fantasies of being Finnick Odair's girlfriend soon evaporated, as he planted an unwelcome kiss on her cheek and purred a disgusting-sounding "congratulations" on her ear.

"Go away," she snapped, pushing him off her and off the bed. Finnick fell with a thud on the floor, and Ash laughed at him as if it was some kind of funny, black comedy.

There went another childhood fantasy of becoming best friends with Ash Mason.

"You have some nerves," Ash said, turning to Johanna. "No one had refused Finnick Odair, to my knowledge. Who wouldn't want to be with the Sex God of Panem?"

"I don't," Johanna muttered, looking away. It was hard to get her overwhelmed, after everything which had happened these recent years, but right now, she was truly overwhelmed. This day was totally a winner, with her first taste of Victor's breakdown and this disappointing impromptu meet-your-idol session. What on earth her mentor was thinking about?

"Come on, boys," Abernathy finally said, his voice turning serious. "Get your heads out of your arses and do your job. I've asked the guys from Three to take care of bugs. Just say whatever is needed."

With that, he pat Johanna's arm and left the room, closing the door shut behind him.

The moment the door clicked shut, Johanna jumped off the bed and grabbed the flower vase on her bedside table, to use as a weapon against the two seedy men she was left with.

"Whoa! Chill, chill, Princess," Finnick, who'd stood back up, said. He threw his arms on the air, in a surrendering gesture Johanna never predicted would come from him. "I swear I'll never hit on you again!"

"Make him promise, too," she said coldly, glaring at Ash, who just sat there watching with half of a grin on his face.

"Ash," Finnick pleaded, looking at his friend, "please."

Ash huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Alright, alright Kiddo," he said, looking at Johanna. "I solemnly swear I will never hit on you, or display intentions to do so thereof."

Johanna put the vase back down on the table and sat back on her bed, consciously pulling the blanket over her lap for she realized she was in nothing but a short, papery gown. She saw Finnick and Ash throwing looks at each other, hints of despair on their faces. Her gut wrenched. Something wasn't right. It was almost like the day she was reaped, the sudden pang of uneasiness she felt as soon as she reached the registration desk.

"Fine, Odair," Ash eventually said, a defeated look on his face. "I'll be the one telling her."

"Telling me what?" Johanna snapped. This whole exchange had gotten her extremely annoyed. Add the uneasiness, and she was mad.

Ash took a deep breath.

"Listen," he said, lowering down his voice and leaning towards Johanna. "You're goddamned beautiful, and the Capitol's crazy about you. Snow might ask you to do...things."

"Such as?" she asked him, still mad but yet puzzled and terrified. What could President Snow possibly wanted from her, a little girl from the smallest, poorest district in Panem?

"Ehm, well, entertaining certain people, for exchange of money," Finnick chimed in, looking dead sad and nervous. Gone was the air of confidence shrouding him since he first barged in. This man was suddenly real and caring.

"Entertaining?" Johanna asked, narrowing down her big eyes.

Ash muttered something which sounded like profanity.

"Let's make this clear," he said, hand hovering tentatively above Johanna's forearm. "You might be expected to serve important members of the Capitol society. In bed."

Once again, Johanna's world came crashing on her.

She felt little, lost, and alone, as she sat there and stared blankly at the wall, ignoring Ash's and Finnick's words of consolation and brotherly hugs. This couldn't be. She had a boy waiting for her at home. She couldn't let this happen.

"NO!" she screamed fiercely, as soon as she could muster the strength to do so. "I HAVE A BOYFRIEND!"

"And I had a girlfriend," Ash said. He smiled sadly and placed his hands firmly on Johanna's forearm. "Don't do what I did. Don't get your lover killed."

"KILLED?!"

That sounded so hysterical, and uncharacteristic of Johanna Everdeen, but then, she'd forgotten how to be herself. There was nothing for her but this numbness, and the thought of Gale's lips and those smiles he reserved only for her and everything else about him in her mind.

"Yep," Ash confirmed, head up high but eyes so sad Johanna almost couldn't bear to see it. "My girl. My parents. My little brothers. Everyone but my sister. All because I refused."

And it all hit Johanna like a surge of galeforce. Of course. Being a Seam girl, she'd long learned that there was no such thing as free lunch in the world. How could she be too naive to see the real price of all those lavishness Capitol showered its Victors with?

She threw her head back and laughed, maniacally, that Finnick got spooked out and Ash bowed his head in pity and shame. That was it. Once you got reaped, you're done. Your life, your dream, your future, all out of the window.

She laughed and laughed, until the laughters turned into tears, and she was back into a crumbling, cowering mess. For real, this time. She fretted for Gale. She fretted for Katniss. She fretted for Prim. She even fretted for her useless mother, who despite all her shortcomings, was still the person who'd given birth to her and her sisters.

"Sssh," Finnick consoled, as he took her into his arms and let her lean against his chest. "You'll be fine, Jo-Jo. Just close your eyes, and let it be. Think of your family. Think of your boy. It would be all worth it."

And sure, it was worth it.

They sent her to her crowning ceremony the next day, in a backless black gown with a slit on the skirt, high up to her thigh. Her make-up was heavy, and her hair was high up in a mature-looking bun. She was no longer a little girl. She was a pretty Victor.

And the minute it was over, she was pulled aside to a secret room backstage, where Snow had been waiting. He told her of her new 'responsibilities', and gave her the first assignment, to be completed that night.

Johanna bit the inside of her cheek and nodded, even though her heart screamed no.

They got her changed into another dress: a short, skimpy red one, and sent her on a car to a fancy hotel she'd never dreamed of stepping her foot in. An older lady - true Capitolite, with her ridiculous clothes and stark white lips contrasting pink-tinted skin - greeted her at the lobby and took her upstairs to one of the rooms. There waited a bottle of expensive liquor, and a Capitol man at least twice her age. The door locked behind her before she could turn around.

She closed her eyes and burned pictures of Katniss, Gale, and Prim onto the back of her eyelids.

She only opened them the next morning, when Finnick's sad, comforting voice greeted her from a chair next to the bed. He looked dishevelled and tired, fresh from serving his own client, and she was naked and sore underneath the sheets from serving hers. He waited outside the bathroom as she cleaned up and redressed, and took her down on the lift, standing quietly behind her as she tried hard not to sink to the floor. They got out at the basement, where Abernathy had waited, next to Ash and a sleek black car.

"Take care, Jo-Jo," said Finnick, as he gave her a last hug.

Ash waved, smiled his forlorn smile, and said, "till we meet again, Kiddo."

Johanna sat in silence and curled up against her mentor's chest as he held her tight all their way to the station, and most of her waking hours on the train back to District Twelve. At some point, he became Haymitch instead of Abernathy, and she started trusting him with her life. He was the first male figure she really had since her father passed.

"Doll," Haymitch finally spoke to her, about an hour before they arrived back home. "Stand tall. Those little sisters of yours wouldn't want to see you like this."

She wiped the leaked tears of humiliation and devastation from her face, and did as instructed. Haymitch slipped a piece of paper in her hand. It had nothing, but a scrawly handwritten request.

'If you love the boy, let him go. Finnick hid his girlfriend, and she still got reaped.'

**to be continued...**


	5. Chapter 5: The Price of Victory

**AN: **Hi all, thanks for reading! Welcome to my new followers meowskii, Norbert's Mom, Jessiexzx, and Craftydiva. I would also like to thank dancer27, Ellie82, meowskii, and MockingjayGirl13 for their reviews. I promise things would look better for Johanna in the future of this story. She's my favourite character, and in writing parts if this story, I broke my own heart. Another thanks for dancer27 for putting this story in her favourite list. Hope you all enjoy this chapter!

This chapter is heavy on Katniss, and spans the years between the 71st and 74th Games. It stages the relationships - platonic and romantic - and themes for the rest of the story. Pace will slow down from the next chapter on, as we explore the characters' thoughts and musings more.

Disclaimer: THG trilogy belongs to Suzanne Collins - characters and settings included. I'm only borrowing them to tell my story.

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**Chapter Five: The Price of Victory**

**Katniss**

Katniss lost her older sister to the Games.

Sure, she got Johanna back. But the person who came back wasn't her sister. Her sister was sharp and sarcastic, yet full of life and fierce love. This stranger was sharp and sarcastic, but cold and distant. What was behind her words was no longer playful encouragement. It was fully acid, burning and scalding.

They moved to her Victor's Village house. Each of them had their own bedroom, and Johanna locked herself up in hers whenever she wasn't out and wasn't in Capitol for some unsaid businesses. She never came hunting with Katniss and Gale again. She'd severed all the ties she had with the boy, even refusing to acknowledge him when they passed each other on the streets.

Katniss's attempt of reconciling the two was rewarded with a slap on the face from Johanna, and a month of silent treatment from Gale.

Johanna bought Katniss and Prim lots of new clothes and luxury items, and fed them all this good, nutritious food. She didn't abandon them the way their mother had. Physically. Emotionally, she was roughly the same as the woman. Distant. Trapped in her own head, in some way or another.

In just under two years, their family of five had dwindled in size. They were now a family of two: Katniss and Prim. The two youngest girls, one a teenager and one a child. Their father was dead. Their mother was a shell. And their sister was a donor and money provider, a practical stranger sharing their house and family name.

There were these rare times, when Johanna and their mother were both somewhat back. Their mother would talk, and Johanna would look at Katniss and Prim with the fierce love she'd once had for them. However, most days, their mother would just sit quietly with her vacant eyes, and Johanna would walk in from yet another Capitol trip, looking downright pissed, throwing a pile of money on the kitchen table then locking herself in her room.

Katniss swore she could hear Johanna's muffled cry at night, most of the days her sister was home. At first, it disturbed her, but with each passing day, it became yet another normal thing, the way their mother's vacant eyes did.

The Capitol had destroyed Katniss's beloved older sister.

With all that happened, Katniss became Prim's primary caregiver. She became her little sister's father, mother, and two big sisters. With each passing day, the middle Everdeen girl hardened. Her gray eyes, beautiful yet tentative as a child, became two steely orbs no soul could penetrate unless she let them to. The only lucky souls to have permission to do so were her little sister Prim, her hunting partner Gale, and her best friend Madge.

Without the burden of making sure the family ate, Katniss was free to use her spare time as she wanted. Some of it was still spent with Gale, hunting in the woods, mainly to feed Gale's family and to escape from her mother and Johanna at home. The majority of the rest went to ensuring Prim's wellbeing and happiness, whenever her popular, kind little sister wasn't with one of those many friends. One or two days a week, she would visit Madge in her house and hung around with the blonde girl. It was Madge who introduced Katniss to several other Merchant teenagers: the shoemaker's daughter Delly Cartwright, and the baker's three sons. They were all nice, and contrary to what Johanna and Gale always said about Merchant kids, down to earth. Sometimes, Katniss would spend time with them - mostly Delly, as the baker's wife was such a difficult character. Katniss's mother and Johanna looked like angels next to that woman, and considering how strained Katniss's relationships with her mother and Johanna already were, she didn't think she could ever have any kind of relationship with Mrs. Mellark.

The 72nd Hunger Games passed, with no victors from District Twelve. The 73rd, too, soon passed, also with no victors from District Twelve. Johanna did not bring any of their tributes back home.

Katniss, Madge, Gale, Delly, and the three Mellark boys lived through both reapings, despite Gale's many tesserae. And they slowly inched towards adulthood, becoming the people they would end up being for most of their lives.

With Gale's begrudging help, Katniss brought Madge - and later Delly and the Mellark boys - into the woods. It was a scary as hell experience to start with, for Katniss fret for her friends. At the end, though, it was all worth it. Madge, Delly, and the Mellark boys loved the woods, a stark contrast of their civilised, sheltered existences. And they all grew on Gale, as he grew on them.

One morning, a couple of months before her sixteenth birthday, Katniss went to check one of her hunting snares, and saw Gale and Madge behind a tree, sitting next to each other. She had her hands on his forearm, and they were sharing a small loaf of bread and some goat cheese.

And it burnt her like nothing else. Not because she liked Gale that way, or because she had some romantic interest in Madge, but because in her mind Gale and Johanna would find their ways back to each other. Because she still had this hope that the Johanna she knew and loved would one day walk back into her life, quipping her and calling her names but still saying "I love you" at the end.

The fact that even Gale had moved on told her that her hope was, like that other hope that her father would make it out of the exploded mines alive, futile.

Katniss didn't see Gale and Madge for a few days afterwards, which was a blessing for she didn't quite know what to do. She went and hang out with Delly and the youngest Mellark boy, Peeta. The one who'd thrown her two loaves of bread that one afternoon when she was eleven. The one who was always a bit strange around her, yet still pleasant and funny she didn't mind the strangeness at all.

As Gale and Madge spent more and more time together on their own, Katniss found herself spending more time with Delly and Peeta. Unlike Gale and Madge, these two were talkers, and soon Katniss found herself talking to them about things. She told them about Prim and all her adorable antics, which made them jealous for they had no sisters. She described to them all the newest Capitol things Johanna brought home for her, and they laughed as she moaned of how ridiculous some of those things were. She chatted to them about school, and felt really amused knowing they thought about it the way she did: useless. Everything was so mine-oriented in that school, that even if you have other interests and talents, there was no way you would develop them.

That late winter afternoon, she was meeting Peeta in a secluded spot near the station. The boy had promised to teach her how to sketch - something she'd never really thought about, but was interested in the moment he mentioned it to her. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw him approaching from afar, with his papers and pencils. For the first time in her life, she realized he was actually quite cute - that floppy, curly blonde hair and clear, beautiful blue eyes.

She turned away for a bit and composed herself, greeting him with a nod when he reached her. They talked about a couple of things, and soon started sketching the station.

Peeta was teaching her how to apply shadows, when a train pulled in and a person stumbled out of it, straight onto the platform. There was no one else around. When they realized the poor soul wasn't going to get up, Peeta and Katniss put down their papers and pencil and ran to the platform to help. As she crouched down and removed the knit hat from the fainting person, Katniss froze.

It was Johanna. Something had happened to her, clearly, for her face was bruised and her hair had been haphazardly shorn close to her skull, but after sixteen year of being Johanna's sister, Katniss couldn't possibly mistaken someone else for her sister.

"Peeta," she whispered, clutching his forearm in fear.

Peeta, too, was pale as.

"Let's take her to your home," he said. With a strained huff, he picked Johanna up and hauled her over his shoulder. In an afterthought, he took Johanna's hat from Katniss and put it back on the older girl's head. A smart move, Katniss must admit, for it would hide the way Johanna's face looked and the fact that Johanna's long, dark hair was missing.

Katniss gathered their pencils and papers, and ran alongside Peeta to Victor's village.

The sky was getting dark, and the air was cold enough to keep the Peacekeepers - who weren't natives of District Twelve - out of the streets and in their houses. Soon, they were running down Victor's Village one and only street, heading towards Johanna's Victor House which was now The Everdeen House. They were only a couple of feet from the front door, when two strong arms grabbed them both from behind, and the voice of Katniss's only neighbour, Johanna's mentor Haymitch Abernathy, greeted their ears.

"Don't," he told them, sternly but gently. "Follow me. You don't know if that house's bugged."

Haymitch led them to the back door of his house and opened the double-locked door, letting them all in. In between her concerns and frights for her sister, Katniss noticed that Haymitch's house was cleaner than the dumpster it was rumoured to be. In fact, it looked normal.

"Table's clean," Haymitch murmured, gesturing to the kitchen table. Peeta nodded and lowered down, slowly, rolling Johanna onto the table on her back. She moaned in pain, and Katniss turned around to hide her welling tears. She could her Haymitch's muttered curses and Peeta's gentle voice consoling Johanna, saying things would be alright. Her breath quickened. She didn't know what to do.

"Sweetheart," Haymitch called her, using the nickname she hated so. "Go get your mother. Be smart; do not mention your sister. Bring the little one, too. And everyone else who are in the house. Don't leave anyone alone."

Katniss nodded and threw one last look at her sister and the two males in the room, before bolting out of the door and back to her house. The kitchen door's unlocked, so she went straight through. Four pairs of concerned blue eyes greeted her as she bursted in. Her Ma's, Prim's, Delly's, and Madge's.

"Katniss!" Prim said, jumping up and rushing to her. "What happened?"

"Someone's got an accident," Katniss explained, looking pleadingly at her mother. The woman nodded, stood up, and headed to her medicine cabinet, pulling out bottles and putting them into her basket. "I need your help. All of you. Follow me."

She turned around and rushed back out, just so that none of them asked more questions. Haymitch's words thundered in her brain. Do not mention your sister. Don't leave anyone alone. What actually happened to her sister, and why?

Delly and Madge were out almost immediately.

"Don't you worry, Katniss," the former said, circling an arm around Katniss. "Everything would be fine. Your mother's a really good healer."

The latter was quiet and looked downright scared. All the awkward resentment Katniss had at her best friends these last few days exploded, right then and there.

"Madge," she coldly said, looking at her female best friend. "It's not Gale. You don't need to worry."

Both Madge and Delly opened their mouths, but before they could say whatever they wanted to say, Katniss's mother and Prim had emerged from the house with baskets of health supplies. Without waiting for their further reactions, Katniss silently led them to the back door of Haymitch's house. Her body trembled with fear of losing her older sister for good. Even though they hadn't been friends at all since Johanna came back from the 71st Hunger Games, even though Johanna had abandoned Prim and Katniss emotionally, they had been the closest of sisters and friends.

Katniss held back her welling tears, as she held the door open for the other four women to enter. Her mother, alert and swift under emergencies as usual, came in first with Prim in tow. Delly followed suit, not long after. Madge, on the other hand, looked conflicted. Katniss stare at her best friend, as the blonde girl looked down at her feet, deep in her own thought.

"Madge," the middle Everdeen said warily, "just..."

She was about to say 'just go home', really, but Haymitch's message sprung in her mind again.

Don't leave anyone alone.

"... just come in," she continued, stashing all her current ill feelings towards Madge at the back of her mind. "You shouldn't walk alone."

Madge nodded and slipped in without words. Katniss wiped her eyes at the back of her gloves before she too went in. She decided to bolt the door behind her, just in case. Taking a deep breath, she walked towards the kitchen, which entrance was currently guarded by Haymitch.

"Go and join those friends of yours in the living room, Sweetheart," he ordered, placing a firm, reassuring hand on Katniss's shaking shoulder. "They all know who is inside. Your mother and the little one can handle this."

Katniss wanted to argue, but all her resolve dissolved as Johanna's cry of pain reached her ears.

"Alright," she said, her eyes hot from yet another round of tears. She hated herself for being so weak, but she really couldn't bear seeing Johanna right now. "Let me know when I can get in."

She made her way to the living room, which looked clean and neat albeit a bit sparse of furniture. Haymitch never had any guests, as far as Katniss remembered. She had an impression he wasn't that fond of others and would rather spend his time with his liquor bottles.

Peeta, Delly, and Madge were already there, occupying the two couches placed in an L-shape in front of the television cabinet. Delly and Madge shared a couch, and the same confused, bewildered looks on their faces. Peeta was on the other, sitting close to the two others. Katniss took the only spot left - on Peeta's side, far from the other two girls - and stared quietly at her clasped hands.

"What do you think happened?" Delly asked, sounding both concerned and clueless.

"Something bad," Peeta answered. He sounded disturbed, and there was a layer of something boiling under his voice. "I won't go into much details, but Haymitch told me what Johanna was made to do."

"The Finnick Odair rumour," Madge said, all of a sudden, "is that true?"

From the corner of her eye, Katniss could see her best friend eyeing her. The look on Madge's face perhaps could be best described as pity and remorse - the former of which Katniss hated, and the latter of which she secretly hankered for.

Peeta, who wasn't known for frequent loss of words, just nodded quietly.

"What does Finnick Odair have to do with this?" Katniss asked, turning quickly to face her friends. The Finnick Odair thing was totally new to her. They had never talked about it with her.

Her three friends just looked at each other, with this pleading looks on their faces.

"Umm, Katniss," Peeta answered eventually, giving in to the pressure from the girls. "Are you aware of what some... girls do when they visit Cray?"

"I am," Katniss said. "They sell themselves."

And it hit her like a thunder in the middle of a sunny, clear day. Finnick Odair and his many 'lovers'. She'd never thought that the popular, handsome Victor was a parallel to those desperate, emaciated girls she saw lining up at Cray's door. With the Victor's Pay he would get for the rest of his life, Finnick Odair didn't have to sink that low, at all.

"Why on earth he does that?" she asked, raising her voice in confusion and alarm.

"He is made to," Peeta answered, looking down at the rug. "His family will be killed otherwise. That's what Haymitch said."

"But, who..."

Katniss's question didn't finish, for it dawned on her who could possibly pimp out Finnick Odair to Capitol citizens, without getting killed or thrown to jail.

"You know who," Peeta commented, smiling sadly at her. "Apparently it's a common thing with Victors."

A common thing with Victors.

There was this black hole deep inside Katniss's stomach, and she could feel herself getting sucked little by little into it. Her older sister. First forced into the cruel Games, then sold in exchange for their family's lives.

It dawned on her why Johanna had never been the same again. Why her older sister was so bitter, burning with more anger than before. There were just too many things happening.

Katniss got up and ran off to the next room she could find, slamming the door behind her as she got in. She sank against it, ignoring her friends' pleas from the other side. She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them, curling up in a ball. Her body shook from sobs; her face wet from the streaming tears.

It felt like someone had sliced her heart in two and pulled one of the halves out.

**to be continued...**

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****Thanks for reading all! Next updates should be more frequent and consistent, for I would've been back from holidays. Hope you have a great week!


	6. Chapter 6: The Sisters and The Secrets

**AN:** Thanks for reading everyone! Welcoming new story followers I-might-BE-slightly-INSANE, SilverOdair, doctoreverdeen78, PiliRose, jc52185, and thanking monbonlivre for favouriting the story. Special thanks to MockingjayGirl13, Norbert's Mom, ellie82, and jc52185 for the reviews. Hope this chapter - and the rest of the story - won't disappoint :).

Disclaimer: THG trilogy, its characters, and its universe are the brainchildren of Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing them to tell the story I conceived in my head.

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**Chapter Six: The Sisters and The Secrets**

**Katniss**

Katniss didn't know when she fell asleep, but she found herself waking up to the sight of some cleaning supplies and the sound of two voices outside the door. Of course. How could she not remember the layout of the Victor's houses? The room she'd entered hastily last night was the cleaning supply cupboard.

The voices outside was deep in some kind of conversation, so she stayed inside and stuck an ear on the door to figure out who they were. One of them was unmistakably Haymitch - no one else in District Twelve really sounded like him. The other one was a female voice which Katniss knew so well. Her mother.

Katniss concentrated and listened, absorbing as much as she could. It didn't really help, for Haymitch was telling her mother things Katniss had not even the slightest idea about. Some kind of crazy party in Capitol, during which people do whatever they wanted, wherever and whenever. People who drew pleasure from things which supposed to hurt. For a moment, she thought Haymitch was drunk again, and was making up stories. But then, her mother responded in all seriousness, and Katniss knew it wasn't a joke or a bluff.

The Capitol was full of things Katniss had never imagined. And those colourful people living in it were monsters. Strange, bizarre, cruel monsters.

She bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from crying for Johanna again. It didn't help her feeling less horrible, and she knew Johanna wouldn't appreciate it. Regardless of how her older sister had won the 71st Hunger Games.

The grey-eyed Everdeen girl decided to stop eavesdropping and focused on stretching her stiff limbs, careful not to knock over any broom or mop or other object in the cupboard. It wasn't an easy feat, for it was impossible for her to totally block out the voices from outside. At certain moments, Katniss found her body jerking in response to some shocking facts Haymitch was revealing to her mother. Sometime along the conversation, her mother started sobbing, and Katniss had to exert all her will and sense to refrain from jumping out of the cupboard and yelling at the woman. Had the weak woman been stronger, Johanna might not have had to take tesserae. Johanna might not have been reaped at all. They might all be sitting around the kitchen table at their Seam house right now, laughing and telling stories like when her Pa was alive.

Katniss shook her head to shake the thoughts away.

She waited and waited until the conversation stopped and her mother left. Then, she slipped quietly out of the cupboards. Her eyes immediately spotted Haymitch on one of the couches, taking a swig of that foul liquor again.

"Doll's been asking for you, Sweetheart," he said, smiling a sad smile Katniss had never seen before. "She's still in the kitchen. Little One's with her."

"Thanks," Katniss muttered weakly, looking at the drunkard. "I'll go see her."

She didn't know if it was a stellar idea. She wasn't quite ready yet to see her older sister after what she'd witnessed and heard. The thoughts of Johanna's state and injuries sent a wave of nausea to her stomach. Katniss didn't like human blood and injuries, and would rather run away from them.

But both her sisters needed her right now. The one who got hurt, and the other one who fixed the injuries. Katniss already walked away from them the previous day, when she let Haymitch send her away. She wasn't going to do the same thing today. She wasn't going to be like her escapist mother.

She gritted her teeth and made her way to the kitchen, bracing herself for the worst. What she ended up facing was way better than what she imagined, though it was still worse than what she'd secretly hoped for.

Johanna was on the table, laying on her side with a pillow under her head. A sheet covered her up to her chest; Katniss knew there was nothing underneath. Prim sat next to her head, patting her head with a damp cloth. The younger girl looked unfazed, if not a little bit pale. Katniss took a deep breath, and convinced herself she could do it.

"Hey," she said weakly, making her way to the empty chair next to Prim's. "I'm here."

Johanna just looked at her with wide, scared eyes.

"We're all alive, Jo," Prim quickly said, looking between the two older girls. "Ma. Kat. Me. No one came after us. Haymitch kept us safe."

A few moments of silence filled the room. Then, slowly, Johanna raised her arm to touch Katniss's cheek. With a searing, stifling pain in her chest, Katniss placed her own hand above her older sister's soft, cold one.

"You're alive," Johanna croaked, smiling and crying at the same time. "Kitty, you're alive."

"Yes, Joey," Katniss croaked back, letting her own tears flow. "I'm alive. And so are you. So is Primmy. So is Ma."

They sat there crying and smiling for a few minutes, before they both laughed at themselves.

"Let's pull a plug on this crying fest," Johanna said. She still looked terrified, but not too wide-eyed anymore, and color had started creeping back onto her face. "You know how much I hate crying."

"Thought you love crying," Katniss joked, smiling. It felt weird talking to Johanna again, even weirder that they were now in Haymitch's kitchen with Johanna on the table, but it still felt good.

"Thought it was you who love crying," Johanna hit back, a glint of mischief in her eyes. "Need me to tell the brat here about you and the berries, Brainless?"

Katniss smiled, though she felt a bit annoyed. The berry incident happened around the time Prim was born. The two older girls - then six and four - were in the woods with their Pa, having a quiet time away from the house and the baby. It just so happened that Katniss sat on a bunch of red berries, staining her pants red. She thought it was blood and started crying, until their Pa pointed out the berries did that.

"I'm sure she knows," Katniss said, waving her older sister off. She turned to their baby sister, asking, "right, Prim?"

"Yep," Prim answered, chuckling. "Ma told me about that, when we still lived at The Seam."

"Ah, The Good Old Seam days," Johanna said, looking nostalgic for a bit. "I miss those."

"Me too," Katniss added. She looked at her older sister and took the sight in. The big brown eyes, different yet somehow unchanged, on the bruised face she knew well. The dark hair, which her sister would sometimes let her braid and play with, now unevenly short and sad looking. Things changed greatly. They had both suffered and grown up, for reasons different but related. Seam days were suddenly so far behind.

Johanna spent a few days recovering in Haymitch's kitchen. Once she could move again and Haymitch had taken care of all the bugging microphones in the Everdeen house, they shifted her back next door. Katniss quietly moved in to Johanna's bedroom, and once again, the two girls shared a bed.

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It was during a bedtime conversation around a week later that Katniss decided to go all honest with Johanna.

"Know what?" she said, spilling her feelings. "Of all things Seam, those I miss the most are Pa and you. The way we used to be. What happened to you, Joey? Why did you block us out like that?"

It felt uncomfortable at first, for she'd grown so accustomed to keeping things to herself. Once she got over it, though, it felt alright. In fact, she felt light. As if a burden had just been lifted off her shoulders.

"I was trying to keep you all alive," Johanna explained, turning her head to Katniss. "You, Prim, and Ma. One mistake, and Snow would make sure I have no loved ones left. If he thinks I don't care about you, he would most likely leave you alone. It's just that, really. Nothing else."

Katniss looked up to the ceiling. She still hadn't fully forgiven her sister for being yet another version of their spaced out mother. But Johanna's reasoning helped her understanding the whole situation, even just a bit. And Johanna had more right to be distant than the woman. Katniss imagined the loss of a dignity would be more painful than that of a husband.

(A few years later, as she revisited these thoughts, she would realize that her fifteen year old self had known very little of love and life. But for now, that was what she thought.)

"Well, if he can authorize and celebrate The Hunger Games, then I believe he wouldn't have problem with killing," Katniss finally said, deciding to accept Johanna's explanation. "Sorry I couldn't save you, Joey."

"Don't you say that, Brainless!" Johanna scolded. Her face contorted in a strange mixture of anger and disgust, and Katniss could see the myriad of emotions playing in her eyes. "I'm older. I'm the one who's supposed to protect you."

"But, Joey,..."

Johanna cut Katniss in, before she could finish the sentence. "For hell's sake, you were just thirteen! Would've been a miracle if you'd survived. And if you did... Kitty, they like their toys young. They've used Finnick since he was fourteen!"

"Did he really do that to every Victor?" Katniss asked, fixing her gaze on her broken, traumatized sister.

"Unless no one in Capitol want you," Johanna answered, a bittersweet smile on her face. "He would've even used Annie Cresta, had Finnick not agreed to double for her."

"That girl who went mad in the Arena?" Katniss asked, narrowing her eyes in surprise.

"No," Johanna answered sarcastically. "Her doppelganger. Yes, Kitty dear. That Annie Cresta. Who saw her district partner beheaded and lost her mind."

She paused for a bit, before continuing in a hush-hush voice, "she's Finnick's girlfriend. They said she only got reaped because of him."

Katniss froze.

"Jo," she said, after a few moments of silence. She didn't know how to approach this problem, but she just had to. "You and Gale. Is that why you left him?"

Johanna chuckled bitterly and let two drops of tears fall from her eyes.

"Why else?" she asked, raising an arm to wipe her face. "You know I loved that boy."

Katniss looked away.

"Do you still love him?" she asked, taking a deep breath and bracing for the worst.

"I guess yes," Johanna answered, sadly. "Stupid boy just wouldn't get out of my mind. Not that I'm still in his mind nowadays anyway."

Katniss pursed her lips, for she didn't want to comment on that matter. Since the night Johanna stumbled onto the station half dead, she hadn't really talked to Madge again. And she hadn't been talking to Gale for even longer that she didn't know where he stood. From what she'd seen at school and sometimes near the district fencing, the two were still together.

"Are you still on, uhm, duty?" she asked Johanna, deciding to drop the subject about Gale.

"From what I've gathered, I've been kicked out of the rank," Johanna answered, smiling victoriously. "Didn't appreciate their farewell party at all, but at least I don't have to be their slave anymore."

"Why did they kick you out?" Katniss asked again.

"Apparently I'm too hard to predict," Johanna answered smugly as if it was an achievement. "And I'm older than the girls they liked to do, so it's another ground for dismissal."

Katniss's dinner swirled in her stomach as she took in what Johanna had just told her. She tilted her head and looked at her sister. At eighteen, Johanna wasn't old at all, and definitely didn't look old. The eldest Everdeen girl was beautiful, even with that sad, haunted expression underlying her eyes and face.

Those Capitol people were just sick in the head.

"What do you think Snow would ask you to do next?" Katniss quietly asked.

"Don't know," Johanna shrugged. "They said once you're dismissed, he'll leave you alone. He'll usually reap your children once they turn fifteen or so, though."

"Do you think he'll reap me or Prim?" Katniss asked again. Fear started creeping in her heart, as she took in Johanna's last sentence. "We're your children, practically."

"No, you're not my child," Johanna said sharply. "You're my co-parent, and Prim is our kid. But, yes, I've thought of him reaping you or Prim. And it's keeping me from sleeping at night, just so you know."

"Then why haven't you told me?" Katniss hissed angrily, pulling herself up onto a sitting position. She couldn't believe Johanna was keeping something that important from her.

"Freaked out much, huh?" Johanna responded, chuckling haughtily. "That's exactly why I haven't told you. There's no use telling you if all we can do is freaking out together. We'll all be hauled off to the madhouse, Brainless."

Katniss huffed and threw herself back onto the bed, turning her face away from her sister. She didn't know what Johanna was planning, but she didn't like the way her sister handled the matter. If Johanna really viewed her as an equal and not a child, she would have been involved in whatever the older girl was planning. Not kept in the dark like this.

"Fine, just go sulking," Johanna taunted. The bed shifted; Katniss could feel her sister rolling away from her. "Try to get some sleep, though. I'm going for an expedition with Haymitch tomorrow, and you're coming with us."

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**Johanna**

Her brainless little sister Katniss was still mad at her when they woke up the next morning. Johanna ignored it. She'd learnt how to minimize the effects of Katniss's disappointment and Prim's sadness on her. It wasn't easy to start with, and when it finally got easier, Johanna found it disturbing. But she had to keep them alive, and the more distant they were from her, the safer they would be, so she just kept going.

She quietly put on her mid-length skirt and loose shirt - the only things she could wear that wouldn't touch those cuts and burns on her body. Out of habit, she walked to her dresser and reached for her hairbrush, only to realize there was nothing to brush at the moment. Upon seeing the state of her hair, she'd agreed to having Prim cutting it down evenly. She had what was practically a buzz cut now, shorter than what most boys in District Twelve had. On the mirror, though, she could see Katniss. The younger girl was staring at her, wearing the scowly expression trademark to Katniss Everdeen.

She turned around, and scowled back at Katniss, just for the fun of pissing her little sister off.

They headed down and had their breakfast of fresh pastries - apparently courtesy of Peeta Mellark - with their baby sister Prim. Their mother was nowhere to be seen; probably in her room wallowing again. Since Johanna came back home beaten up, the woman hadn't been in mother mode. Sure, she tended to Johanna's injuries, acting like a good healer slash doctor. She never asked much of what happened though, only a few technical questions of what Johanna thought happened so that she could fix the injuries in the best way.

Johanna made sure Prim and Katniss weren't around, when she told the woman her injuries were mostly from whipping and electrocution. She must said she enjoyed that terrorized look on the woman's face when she recounted how they'd thrown her into a bathtub and put a naked cable in the water alongside her. The woman didn't cry, though, to Johanna's chagrin. On the other hand, her wounds healed a lot faster afterwards, so after all she hadn't re-lived the horror in vain.

"Oh, Katniss," Prim suddenly said, snapping Johanna out of her thoughts. "Peeta asked if you want to go sketching again. He said he finished the blacksmith's toasting cake early, so he has some free time this morning."

"I can't, Prim," Katniss responded. There was this little look of anguish on her face, which amused Johanna. "I'm go... uh, I have something to do this morning."

"Just tell her you're going with me," Johanna waved Katniss off. "We're bringing her as well. We can't bring Mellark, though, sorry. You'll have to find another time to date."

"He's not my boyfriend, Jo_hanna_," Katniss denied, glaring at her. Johanna straightened her back, excited. As twisted as this sounds, she liked it when Katniss stood up against her. For two and a half years, she'd existed in fear for her little sisters. She'd let Snow do whatever he wanted on her. Hell, she didn't do it all just two have to spineless sisters who would cower under Snow the way she had to. He'd ruined her. He couldn't ruin her sisters too.

A loud knock on the back door, though, snapped them out of the tense moment. Johanna stood up to get the door, only to be pushed back to her chair by Katniss. She watched, proudly and affectionately, as her middle sister grabbed a kitchen knife and headed for the door. Johanna knew Snow well enough to realize that anyone who would knock was most probably harmless, but nevertheless, Katniss's awareness of danger showed yet another strength. Another survival instinct.

She'd given everything to keep Katniss out of the reaping. And now that she couldn't do more, her best bet was to make sure her sister would win and come home, if the reaping did happen. Johanna knew she wasn't a good mentor; her four tributes from the previous two years had all died within the first few hours of the Games. Haymitch, while a great father figure, was a useless mentor with his habit of ignoring his tributes and drinking. Unless Katniss was a survival genius in her own right, there was no way Johanna would be able to bring her sister back home alive.

Some exchange happened at the back door, and some short minutes later, Katniss had brought in a sober, clean Haymitch into their kitchen. The middle girl looked mortified as Haymitch sat down with them and grabbed a pastry uninvitedly, but said nothing nevertheless. She just sat there and glared, as Johanna tried hard not to laugh and Prim chuckled silently.

"Saw your Loverboy leaving this house earlier, Sweetheart," Haymitch said, winking at Katniss. "Did he heat up your oven?"

Johanna snorted and spewed pastry crumbs all over her plate. Prim's confused expression and Katniss's beet-red face cracked her up.

Thank Haymitch for the early morning entertainment, she thought to herself, as she winked back at Haymitch on her sister's behalf.

"He. Is. Not. My. Boyfriend," Katniss finally said, looking dangerously menacing as she slammed her fists on the table. Johanna watched, as amusedly as before, as the grey-eyed girl kicked her chair back and stormed off to the living room.

"Give me a shout when you're ready!" Katniss hollered as she disappeared from their field of view.

"That says all, doesn't it?" Haymitch asked, smirking.

"Yeah," Johanna said, grinning. "She'll give you hell for that, though. I'd watch out if I were you, Old Man."

This was definitely an interesting start to their next few months of Career Training.

**To Be Continued...**

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Thanks for reading everyone! Hope you like it. Will see you with another update later this week :).


	7. Chapter 7: The Careers of District 12

**A/N: **Thanks for reading everyone! Welcoming my new followers Finding Bliss, SilentMockingjay, Aloha Jay, and Haley-Belle. Thanks to Aloha Jay for favouriting this story, and special thanks to all my reviewers: monbonlivre, ellie82, jc52185, MockingjayGirl13, and Norbert's Mom. Hope you all would like this chapter!

This chapter is all about relationships and thoughts and feelings and reminiscence instead of fast-paced action. The ball would be rolling in the next chapter though, with the 74th Hunger Games beginning. I figured out I need to start sorting things out before barging in with more action :).

**Disclaimer: **Suzanne Collins owns THG Trilogy, Panem, and the characters. Minor character Ash Mason is my O.C., and there will be a mention of a minor O.C here, a female Victor from District Seven. My O.C.s are only here because I made the decision to make Johanna an Everdeen and a resident of Twelve - figure out I still need things going on at Seven hence the O.C.s.

(This story is all about the lives and times and bond between Johanna and Katniss, though, so you needn't worry the O.C.s would dominate :))

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**Chapter Seven: The Careers of District Twelve**

**Katniss**

Her arms ache. Her legs ache. Her sides ache. Everything aches. But she knew she'd pull through. She'd done more than this the week before, and she was fine by the end of it.

She gritted her teeth and kept running, the bag of rocks heavy on her back. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Prim sprinting past her, going on a speed Katniss didn't know existed before. Unlike her, her baby sister didn't have any additional weights strapped on her. Haymitch and Johanna were easier on Prim than they were on Katniss. Somehow they knew of Katniss's intention of volunteering for Prim as long as she was able to. That was what Everdeen girls would do for their younger sisters, when they had the chance.

"Is that all you can give, Brainless?!" Johanna yelled beside her. Tilting her head, Katniss saw her older sister running beside her. Over the three months they were training, Johanna's hair had grown back into this short, spiky cut which spiked even more when sweat was involved. They, too, had grown back together as sisters in some sense. They'd resumed sleeping in the same bed every night. Katniss had held Johanna at night, as her older sister broke down and cried from nightmares about The Hunger Games and twisted Capitol men. She'd also brought Johanna to the lake they used to swim at as kids, to help with the fear of water her older sister developed after that incident in Capitol.

Johanna, in turn, had become the bizarre yet endearing older sister, once again. She filled back the void she created when she left for the Games, the hole Katniss had attempted to fill through friendships with Madge and Gale. With Johanna, Katniss was free to be herself. Though there was no way Johanna could be not judgemental, Katniss knew her sister would never leave. There was just so much love, so much bond, so much sacrifice that nothing could tear them apart.

Johanna shared even more stories about the Capitol and her Victor friends, now that their house was bug-free and Snow had left them alone. Katniss got to know things about the legendary Finnick Odair, and two Victors from District Seven: Ash Mason who won five years ago and his sister Caroline who had been sent into the 72nd Hunger Games because of her brother's 'mistake'. In turn, Katniss shared her stories about her friends: Madge, Delly, and the Mellark brothers. She told, too, stories about Gale, after a lot of thinking and considering whether it was worth it. Johanna took everything in stride, though, surprisingly. Even the fact that Gale had moved on and was now with Madge.

Johanna was even the one to ask Katniss to recruit Madge and Gale to this secret Career Training group, after they'd brought in Delly, Peeta, and the middle Mellark boy Wheaton.

Katniss eyed Madge - who was running some distance in front of her - and Gale - who was with Haymitch and the boys learning hand combat - as she recalled Johanna's words about the two.

"Undersee's your friend, and she was at our house the night you and Peeta found me. And if you're getting her, you might as well get Gale before he starts snooping around. That guy's a busybody, you know that."

Having had her green light, Katniss proceeded with asking the two. Madge took a bit of time to decide, but ended up saying yes at the end. Gale, on the other hand, jumped on the first opportunity to defy the Capitol and break rules. He'd been increasingly rebellious since Johanna got reaped, and Katniss had an impression he was more enamoured with the idea of doing something illegal than with the Career Training itself.

With one last stride, Katniss reached her finish. Her train of thoughts, conjured to help her coping with the physical pain, halted. She threw the bag off her shoulders and reached for her water bottle, taking small gulps while sweeping the grounds for her friends and baby sister. Prim had stopped running, and was now figuring out the fastest way to climb a tree under Johanna's watchful eyes. Delly and Madge were still running, looking more and more like vicious Careers than sweet, harmless Merchant girls. The boys were in some kind of a four-way practice fight with Haymitch, tangled in a way Katniss wasn't sure which limb was whose.

She blushed and turned away when she met Peeta's eyes. Between school and Peeta's work in his parents' bakery and now this training, they didn't really have time to go and hang out. They'd gotten closer, though, throughout the training and over their breaks at school. He was a nice boy, sweet and funny. He made Katniss happy in a way which exhilarated and terrified her. She found herself thinking about him a lot, and couldn't blame that on Johanna and Haymitch who kept teasing her about him. They hadn't been at it for a couple of weeks now and she still couldn't stop thinking about Peeta. Perhaps this was that 'crush' thing those other girls at school kept talking about.

She shook the thoughts away and headed to her next station for the day: weapons. She didn't want relationships. After what happened to her mother and what happened to her older sister, she couldn't possibly have one. Especially right now, when reaping was looming close and her chance of getting reaped was definitely increased. There was no need to break anyone's heart. Especially Peeta Mellark's heart.

Their weaponry were housed in several tree hollows, concentrated around a makeshift target-practice area. There were bows that Katniss made for them and arrows to go with the bows, several sharp knives they'd commissioned the blacksmith for, wires and other snare-making equipments, and gift items sent from Johanna's well-meaning friends. Finnick Odair sent parts of a trident in several shipments, concealed in everyday objects. He couldn't send the manual on how to construct it, for safety reasons, so they had to play a guessing game. When it was constructed, though, it turned out that none of them was brilliant with it. None of them were even close to good with it, except Peeta who was good with spears. The Mason siblings, Ash and Caroline, sent parts of several axes and hatchets. These were not that hard to construct, but ended up being Johanna's toys instead of training weapons since no one else was good with them.

Skipping the bows and arrows she already knew and the snares she'd already learnt, Katniss reached for the knives and started throwing them. She wasn't as good with them as she was with bows and arrows, but she'd gotten to the point that she could now aim her throw reasonably closely. They'd talked strategies as they went through. If Katniss ended up going to the Games, the knife-throwing would be her pretense during training. Haymitch said it was a dumb idea to lay out your strengths in front of your potential enemies, and being Johanna's sister, Katniss could get away with being 'good at throwing things'. She had never felt right with axes, though, after seeing Johanna's Games and those won by the siblings from District Seven, so knife-throwing it was.

Madge entered her field of view from the side, bow in hand and quiver of arrows slung across back. Right in her comfort zone. Of all weapons, Madge did the best with bows and arrows. Katniss knew Gale had taught his girlfriend of how to use them, and that Madge seemed to take it really seriously since she was genuinely in love.

Madge made that first semi-successful shot, and Katniss went back to her knife-throwing. She was still somewhat conflicted about Gale and Madge; about the boy her sister loved and the girl she considered a best friend outside her family. Even when Johanna had accepted everything and took everything bravely, Katniss still couldn't believe the whole thing. She couldn't believe Gale had the gut to date her best friend, after that love he'd shown for Johanna before and during Johanna's Games. Especially when he didn't know the whole story and didn't even seem to make any attempt to know.

Soon, Katniss ran out of knives. She walked, careful for any flying weapons, to the target and plucked her knives out from it. From the place she was standing at, she could see the boys heading towards the running circuit. Haymitch didn't really do running anymore. Years of alcoholism and that one gut wound he received at the end of his Games degraded his fitness. Thus the boys were now in Johanna's hands, while Haymitch took Delly and Prim somewhere and showed them how to get away from a fight which looked hopeless.

Johanna handed each boy a huge weight bag and smirked at them. From where she stood, Katniss could see Gale tensing when Johanna handed him his bag. He didn't even acknowledge Johanna, but Katniss knew him well enough to recognize the way he expressed a heartache. Her ears burnt as she recalled those hours of berating and mocking Johanna she spent with Gale before she knew the truth. It had felt good at the moment, and now there was nothing left but guilt and shame. She didn't know whether Gale felt the same way, but somehow she had an inkling that he'd never forgotten her sister. She'd like to think that he was just hurt, like her, but he couldn't really vouch for his feelings so she kept quiet about it.

Knives in hand, Katniss made her way back to her throwing spot. She didn't make it really far, though, before something silvery flashed before her eyes. Her reflex sent her to the ground, and a few milliseconds later, she heard that familiar thump of an arrow impaling its target. Some people shrieked, and some other gasped. Katniss's eyes darted around to search for the arrow. There it was, on a target already impaled with some others, right on Madge's trajectory.

Looked like she'd just walked in straight into the path of Madge's arrow.

Everyone rushed to Katniss. Madge, being the closest one from her, beat everyone else to it.

"I'm sorry! You OK?" the Merchant girl asked, crouching on the ground next to Katniss.

"I'm fine," Katniss muttered, pulling herself into a sitting position. "My fault, really. Should've paid attention to where I was going."

"Good reflex, Brainless," Johanna commented dryly, standing on Katniss's other side. "Glad that you're still here with us now."

"I'm glad, too," Katniss responded, using her sister's outstretched arm to pull her body up. "I'd better..."

The red liquid trickling from her right hand and down her right arm silenced her.

Madge jumped up and stepped backwards, wide-eyed and guilty. Johanna kicked off the knives scattered on the ground under them and grabbed Katniss's hand back, holding it palm up under the sun. Katniss looked away. The glimpse she got of her hand showed two long, diagonal cuts on it. One of the knives must have slipped through it when she fell over.

"Well done," Johanna said. Katniss could almost picture the older girl's rolling eyes, and she had to fight the huge urge to slap Johanna on the face. How could her sister mock her, instead of help her?

"Here," she heard Prim saying, "let me see."

Thank heavens for angelic little sisters.

"Looks pretty bad," Prim commented, after about thirty seconds of inspecting. "I don't think you'd die from this, Katniss, but we have to get this cleaned and wrapped. You might need stitches too."

"Sweet," Johanna said defeatedly. "Someone, take this Brainless girl home."

Five minutes later, she was well on her way back into the district fencing, hand wrapped hastily with some spare arm band. Prim walked on her good side; Peeta on her bad. He'd volunteered to take Katniss and Prim home when others continued their training. The two were deep in some chatters, though Katniss couldn't really figure out what they were talking about through her hazy, overwhelmed mind.

She was still zoned out, thinking of all her interesting friends, when they slipped back under the fence and made their way to the Victor's Village. She thought of Madge, who seemed to feel somewhat guilty that she was dating Gale but at the same time enjoyed what she had, immensely. She thought of Gale, who was dating Madge yet seemed unable to forget Katniss's sister Johanna. She thought of Delly, who was always sunny and smiling no matter what happened, to the point that Katniss sometimes got worried about the girl's real wellbeing. She thought of Wheaton Mellark, a wrestling champion who cowered under his crazy, dominant mother. Above all, though, she thought of this boy walking next to her, who seemed to always be there for her when she needed him, in the strangest of ways.

_Stop crushing on Peeta Mellark, Katniss_, she reminded herself, blinking to shake the thoughts away. You're probably going to the Games this year, and heaven knows what's going to happen afterwards.

"Katniss," Peeta suddenly whispered in her ear, "Peacekeepers around. You'd better hide your hand."

Scanning her surroundings, Katniss confirmed that there were indeed Peacekeepers. They were just the usual District Twelve Peacekeepers she often saw trading at The Hob, no one harmless. Still, she did what Peeta suggested and slipped her hand into her pants' pocket. She would rather not have to explain things to the Peacekeepers.

Peacekeeper Darius, a redhead Katniss often saw at Greasy Sae's soup stall, waved at them. Prim and Peeta, being their cheerful selves, waved back. Katniss waved back, too. Darius was perhaps the nicest Peacekeeper at District Twelve, though Gale wasn't too fond of him for some reasons Katniss didn't know.

"He likes you," Peeta said, a few minutes later as they walked down Victor's Village main road. He nudged her playfully, but Katniss could feel something off, something which wasn't quite Peeta-like in his behaviour. "I can see it in his eyes."

"Umm, I believe that's the way he is," Katniss tried to reason, looking uneasily at the ground ahead her. "I've seen him teasing Bristel, Leevy, Thom's sisters, and many other Seam girls. I think he's just a bit desperate. Peacekeepers aren't allowed to marry, right?"

Peeta just chuckled and shook his head, only stopping when Katniss glared at him.

They made it to the house without any further incidents. Katniss's Ma wasn't home, a note on the table saying she was going to a Seam family's home to help with the birth of their newest child. Katniss shook her head as she plopped down on the kitchen chair, holding her wounded palm open for Prim to clean. She didn't understand how could those Seam families keep bringing children into this messed up world. With all those starvation deaths, and the twenty-three Hunger Games carnages they were forced to witness each year, how could they still entertain the idea of having children they couldn't protect?

"This family has four boys already," Katniss commented, resigning to grasping Peeta's arm with her left hand as Prim poured some stinging antiseptic solution on the right one. "I don't know why they need the fifth."

"Perhaps they want a girl, like my mother did?" Peeta offered an answer, smiling wistfully.

Now, Katniss knew that Mrs. Mellark hit the two younger boys a lot, especially Peeta, the youngest, but she'd never realized that was the reason.

"Is that why she..."

Katniss's voice trailed off, as Peeta's warning eyes darted towards Prim who was deep in concentration examining her wounded hand. Of all people, only Katniss and Delly knew that Mrs. Mellark was a child-beater. Peeta's older brothers were both too cowardly to talk about it, and Peeta was too loving, too protective to be able to speak ill about his mother.

"I'll have to stitch these, Katniss," Prim quietly informed, getting up to fetch some more things from their medicine cabinet. "It's kind of deep."

Katniss had to grip Peeta's arm harder, just to fight her sudden urge to run away.

A shot of numbing agents, some stitches, and some wrappings later, Katniss found herself sitting at her front porch, reading a fiction book Johanna brought from Capitol. Peeta had gone home to help his parents. He hadn't wanted to, but Katniss made him go, knowing well his mother would hit him otherwise. Prim insisted on cooking dinner, and on keeping Katniss away from the kitchen when she did so. Their mother and Johanna were both still out, though judging the time and the angle of the sun on the afternoon sky, Katniss suspected her older sister would be back soon.

The book was pretty interesting. Katniss liked it, for the main character was a brave, strong sixteen year old female. All the fiction books they had at the school library were about boy heroes and helpless girls they saved - she'd had good laughs with Johanna, as two rambunctious pre-teens, about those useless female characters. Their father had raised his three daughters to be strong and self-sufficient, a belief passed on from his grandmother. Katniss had never met her great-grandmother. The woman passed away when Johanna was just days old, right after naming the baby Johanna.

Katniss looked up from the book, recalling the day her father told her and Johanna, in the woods, about their late great-grandmother.

_"Your Great-grandma named you, Johanna," their father said that day, playfully ruffling Johanna's dark hair. "Your mother got a bit upset, for she'd wanted to give you a flower name, but she's such a lovely person she granted your Great-grandma's deathbed wish."_

_"I wish she'd had another wish," ten year old Johanna said, sulking. "Gale Hawthorne keeps giving me a hard time about my name. He said I should be going back to District Seven."_

_Eight year old Katniss scowled. Gale Hawthorne was always merciless to Johanna, for some reason neither Katniss nor Johanna knew. He hadn't stopped going on about the "go back to District Seven" thing since 66th Hunger Games started about a month ago. The male tribute from District Seven was called Johann, and he had brown eyes like Johanna. Gale was dead pissed when the boy took down District Twelve's female tribute, and seemed to take it all out on Johanna for whatever reason they were. Katniss thought Gale would stopped when the Johann boy from Seven died in the Games, but no, he didn't drop it. Until Johanna punched him on the face and told him to get lost, just a few hours ago._

_Their father, though, looked somber._

_"Joey," he then said, using their pet names, "Kitty. There is nothing wrong with being from another District. Panem is a nation. We are all humans. We might all have common ancestors, some time in the past. One day, in your lifetime, maybe, we might be able to go to the other Districts freely. There might be no more Hunger Games, no more District against District things. When the time comes, I want you to embrace the opportunity. There's so much more of life outside District Twelve."_

Katniss put the book aside and pulled her knees up to her chin. She suddenly missed her father. She missed his wisdom. She missed the sense of peace, calm, and safety he brought the family. She missed him.

A familiar figure entered her field of view. Wiping her eyes with her left hand, Katniss saw Johanna walking up their porch, with this dazed, confused look. For a moment, Katniss thought her sister had had some training accident or things like that. But then, Johanna turned to her and looked at her with frantic eyes, and she realized her sister was just shocked.

"Joey," she said, standing up. "What's up?"

Johanna pulled her into their house and slammed the door behind her. Katniss stood there in silence, as her older sister sunk to the floor against their wooden door.

"Kitty," Johanna said, fingering her lips unconsciously. "He kissed me."

"Who?" Katniss asked. "Wheaton? Haymitch? One of the Peacekeepers? _Peeta_?"

"No," Johanna answered, bowing her head and cradling it in her hands. "Gale. Gale Hawthorne."

Looked like their messy lives were getting even more complicated.

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Thanks for reading, and hope you like it! I'll see you with the next chapter this weekend :).


	8. Chapter 8: The Woes of Love

**AN: **Hey all! Thanks for reading 'The Miner's Daughters'. It delighted me how many views I've gotten for this story, and how many of you have followed, favourited, and reviewed. Welcoming my new followers rorow1, Ck00194, odairsknots, and Monkeyslovedrpepper. Thanks to rorow1 for putting this story as favourite, and special thanks to my reviewers Ellie82, Norbert's Mom, jc52185, and Aloha Jay. You guys all brightened my days and gave me that extra drive to keep on telling Johanna's and Katniss's story. Hope you'll keep enjoying the story :).

As I progressed further, the challenge of managing the two girls' different sub-plots and deciding which P.O.V to use became more and more apparent for me. I have this idea in my head to do some outtakes and put them in separate story/stories. Some chapters of the outtake will definitely be done from Peeta's and Gale's point of views, as well as some other characters'; some others would be Johanna's and Katniss's perspectives of the part of the story I made the other girl tell in this one. I'm still tossing with this idea, though, so would be good if you can help me deciding ;).

**Disclaimer: **Suzanne Collins owns THG trilogy, Panem, and all the characters. I'm just borrowing :).

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**Chapter Eight: The Woes of Love**

**Johanna**

As a child, Johanna had always liked swimming. Especially in those hot summer days, where nothing else would never be enough to curb the fire burning in her. Not even tossing around axes with careless abandon.

That one last 'party' in Capitol saw her dunked in electrified water, so, naturally, she came back home scared of water. Not for long, though. Her little sister Katniss pulled her through it, by dunking her in the very lake they'd learnt to swim in. She was both terrified and mad as hell the first time Katniss did that, and threw a tantrum when she got back to normal. The next few times saw getting back in the water easier, though. Once her mind and body learned back how to dissociate water and that burning feeling from the electrocution, she was once again a keen swimmer. She still had her relapses, though, at times. That was why she would never swim alone these days.

Katniss, her usual swimming companion, was occupied with some school assignment. Or, more likely, Peeta Mellark. Johanna could picture the two teenagers sitting in her kitchen, trying to do work without getting too distracted with each other. They were so cute, and so infuriating as well. It was crystal clear they liked each other, yet none of them would say it.

Well, Peeta was kind of a shy guy. And Katniss, dear Katniss, had a reaping looming above her head and Johanna's sob story about having to pretend she didn't love Gale and to let him go after she'd won. Who was Johanna to tell the two to just admit it, and destroy themselves later if Katniss got reaped?

Pushing the thought away from her brain, Johanna lifted her head above the water and inhaled, enjoying the surge of fresh air into her lungs. A chuckle from her current companion - who wasn't keen to dip into the water with her, but was nice enough to sit at the edge and watch her - told her that she must have looked somewhat comical.

She dipped her arms in the water, and splashed him in return.

"You've never changed," Gale said, after he was done yelping and rubbing water off his face. "Johanna. Always mean."

"_Johnny Evermean_," she corrected him, smirking. She'd missed that nickname the whole time she had been forced to deny her feelings for him. Finnick's affectionate 'Jo-Jo' and Ash's playful 'Kiddo' were no match for this one.

Gale chuckled, a nostalgic look on his face.

"Nice to hear that one again," he said, looking down at Johanna. "Has anyone else called you that?"

"As if they could come up with it," Johanna replied sarcastically. Her 'lovers', while rich, were mostly dimwits.

She pulled herself out of the water and walked towards him, plopping herself down next to him. She assumed it would be alright, for she was wearing her black one-piece, but he still tensed. Sighing, she shook her head and grabbed the towel behind her, wrapping it around her shoulders. She needed to get used to not get naked or wear skimpy things at whim. After all, she wasn't a whore anymore. She wouldn't need to get into character, ever again.

"You've grown up," he quietly said, turning to her a few seconds later. "You're a woman now."

"And you're a man," she replied. "A man who dates a sixteen year old."

"Madge's just two years younger," he defended, grimacing. "And no, we're not dating. We're just close friends. Like..."

"Like Katniss and Peeta?" she cut in, lifting an eyebrow at him. "Friends with further intentions?"

Gale turned away, and Johanna knew she was right. Or partially right.

"Johanna," he finally said, looking straight to the front. "I really wish you hadn't broken that one promise you made that day in the Justice Building."

She knew which one he was referring to. She'd only broken a couple of promises so far, and the one she made to him was the one which haunted her the most. Especially because she never intended to break it. She just had to.

"I..."

Her voice trailed off, as she closed her mouth back and scolded herself for even entertaining the idea of telling him her sob story. It wouldn't have been fair to him, wouldn't have been fair to Miss Madge Undersee. The girl had taken care of Katniss for her. And having been observing the quiet girl behaved around Gale, Johanna could tell she really liked him.

One more cue to take for Johanna. Haymitch had practically stripped her dark secrets naked in front of Peeta Mellark, and the boy had in turn revealed them to Katniss, Delly Cartwright, and Miss Undersee. The fact that until today Gale remained clueless about her predicament told Johanna that Little Madge was keeping what she heard to herself. Either she didn't know Gale's history with Johanna and was merely doing an act of courtesy by not telling, or she knew and yet wanted him badly enough she was scared to tell him. If it was the first thing, Madge Undersee was a decent, honourable girl. If it was the second, though, she was still decent and honourable, _and_ also human.

Well, if Undersee liked Gale, and he seemed happy with her, why would Johanna interfere? They were both whole people, unlike the broken mess which was Johanna. They would have been perfect together.

So, Johanna just shrugged and let it slide. She'd been granted more than she'd wished, by having Gale back as a friend. They were friends now. Friends with a huge tension, and that one emotional kiss a couple of months back. Even though it had shocked Johanna at first, she soon realized, it was just a desperate thing. Gale had just been overwhelmed with the fact that they were back in each other's lives on a near daily basis now. What Johanna had done was pretty much unforgivable for him. They were done. They were over.

"Undersee's a great girl," Johanna said, being objective for once. "And I can see that she likes you. Don't wait too long."

"I'll wait until after Reaping Day," Gale responded, still staring to the distance. "That way, it wouldn't hurt as bad as you did."

Johanna snorted.

"Coward," she said, grabbing his chin and turning his head towards her. "Listen to me, my friend. Undersee's chance of getting reaped is five in maybe three or four thousand. And I won't go into detail, but I'm sure it would be Katniss or Prim this year. I've been... told about it."

He just looked aside, refusing to meet her eyes. She released him and went back to staring into the water, watching the sunset reflected on it.

"Can't you do something for your sisters?" he asked her after a while, voice rising in anger.

"You have no idea what I've done for them," she answered, standing up. "See you at training tomorrow, Gale."

She threw her dress back over her head and walked quickly into the trees, disappearing from his sight before he could catch her crying. She didn't need his pity and charity.

* * *

**Katniss**

Once she actually let Madge talk long enough before cutting in or leaving or changing the subject, Katniss finally knew that Madge and Gale were no further than her and Peeta in love department. What she saw in the woods those months ago was simply a friendship.

With that, and with the oath she'd made to Johanna that she would let Gale and Madge be, Katniss decided to let her resentment go and be friends with Madge, once again. They were a team of four at school now: Katniss, Madge, Delly, and Peeta. A unified front, a tight knit group. You couldn't help but becoming close once you've gone through adversities together, and what Johanna and Haymitch put them through in the trainings were more than enough to glue them together.

Katniss saw a lot of Peeta Mellark every single day, more and more with each passing day. They'd constructed this timetable of when his mother wouldn't be in the bakery, and created all sorts of communication codes to get around the evil woman so that they could have their hour or so together. Peeta's mother seemed to have taken a liking to Delly, and wouldn't mind where he went as long as Delly was with him. He'd been training whenever Delly was, which was practically every day. Katniss initially thought the butterflies in her stomach would die down the more she saw him. But alas, it turned out to be the other way around. He seemed more breathtaking to her, now that she'd known almost all about him. She'd known, almost all her life, that he was a baker, but now, she'd known he was a painter too. She now knew his favourite color was that soft shade of orange filling the sky at sunset. One morning, she was waiting for him on the side of the bakery's building, and noticed that he slept with his windows open.

Besides, the fact that Peeta Mellark was becoming more muscular and stronger with the training wasn't something Katniss could easily miss.

Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, and before they knew, they were walking through the woods back to the district fencing after their last Career Training before the 74th Hunger Games. The Reaping Day was just two days away, and Haymitch wanted them all to spend some quiet time with themselves from that night on.

Katniss looked up to the afternoon sky above them, as she recalled Haymitch's final training advice.

_"Don't volunteer unless you have to."_

The words surprised her a bit, as she was assuming all along that the older mentor would want them to volunteer after all those time he'd invested on their trainings. Actually, with each passing day, everything that she'd assumed about Haymitch Abernathy were slowly proven wrong. She actually had started liking him as a mentor, for he really got her. He knew all the right strings to pull to get Katniss through everything.

"Katniss."

Turning around, Katniss realized that Peeta had stopped, a few steps behind where she was now. There was this look of hesitation on his face, but his jaw was set and he locked his gaze on hers.

"Yes?" she asked tentatively, standing still on her spot.

He took a few determined strides forward upon realizing she wasn't going to move.

"There's something I need to tell you right now," he said. His voice sounded clear and strong like usual, but there was an edge on it that set Katniss's curiosity aflame.

"Umm... go on?" she said, trying hard to hold her gaze on his eyes.

He inhaled deeply, as if he was going to take a dive into the lake.

"I like you."

"I know," Katniss answered. She didn't understand why on earth he needed to tell her that. She wasn't stupid. "You won't want to hang around with me otherwise."

"Well, guess I put it the wrong way, then," Peeta responded, chuckling to himself. "I like you as a person, Katniss. But I also like you."

For a moment, Katniss could just stand there frozen. It wasn't only her. He liked her, too. In a perfect world, somewhere out there, they could be together. They could be perfect.

But here in Panem, in District Twelve, they couldn't be.

"I..."

She'd wanted to say, 'I like you too', but the images of Johanna and Gale the morning before that one reaping which took her sister away, and of Johanna confessing what a victory costed on that bed they shared that early spring night, stopped her from doing so.

She had to spare both of them the heartache.

"I can't," she whispered out. Turning around, she did what she knew would solve her problems: running away, to a place where no one would find her, until she could face the world again.

* * *

**Johanna**

Reaping Day rolled in like the Grim it was.

Johanna rolled out of bed at four A.M. and headed down to the kitchen to pour herself some coffee. She needed to stay awake for the reaping, and she barely slept the night before she would need all the caffeine she could get. She couldn't bear to go back to the bed to watch her little sisters' faces as they slept. These past few months, it had been the three of them - plus Prim's ugly orange cat Buttercup, which Johanna'd never realized they had until recently - in that one king-sized bed. Bigger than the space they had as children, yet tighter than it was supposed too.

She sat there alone in the kitchen, running a hand on her now ear-length hair. Katniss's and Prim's companies had actually helped her alleviating all those nightmares away. When her little sisters were around, she dreamed less of the faces of the four Career tributes she'd impaled in her Games. She dreamed less of the voices and smells and touches of the countless Capitol men she was forced to lay with. She dreamed less of water and electrocution and crazy Capitol 'parties'. There were times when she'd woken up Katniss and Prim with her sobs and muffled screams, and she hated those times she scared her sisters. But they were happier sleeping together like that, and thus Johanna decided to stay.

Tonight, she would sleep in the train. And one of her sisters might be sleeping in the train alongside her, too. She'd like to think that Snow would let them live another year, that some other girl would get reaped this year. But it seemed too good, so good that she couldn't believe it.

_There was no free lunch, Johanna_, she reminded herself, inhaling deeply. _You are paying for the fact that you're alive at the end of your Games._

She finished her coffee and poured herself another cup. She needed distraction. She didn't want to think up scenarios and play what-ifs, the way she'd done since she came back from her Games. She was tired of being this mousey, paranoid person. She wanted to be the carefree, fearless Johanna again. There were times that person was back - mainly when she was deep down in a Capitol club, with Finnick and Ash and Caroline and some Capitol randoms they were with - but at the end of the day, she still wasn't this person.

The self she knew and loved was gone. All she had left were Katniss and Prim. Her sisters. Her babies.

She didn't know what happened, but she cried into her coffee as she drank it.

Prim's cries and screams was what eventually stopped Johanna from crying. She threw her cup hastily on the table, spilling it all over, and dashed back up to her bedroom. Her heart raced all the way; could this possibly be yet another cruel thing Snow was planning all along? Killing her sisters, the morning of the Reaping Day?

Turned out it wasn't. Johanna's heart slowed down to normal, as she stood before her two sisters. They sat on the bed, Prim crying in Katniss's arms as Katniss sang Deep in The Meadow. Prim looked so young, younger than her twelve years. And Katniss looked so old, older beyond her sixteen years. On the foot of the bed, the stupid cat stood alert; tail and tatty ears up as he watched the two girls intently.

Looked like it was yet another case of pre-reaping nightmare.

Johanna joined the hug and threw her head back, just so that her tears didn't start flowing again. To the world, to her little sisters, she never cried.

Prim fell back asleep soon afterwards. With one look at each other, Katniss and Johanna climbed down the bed and headed down to the living room, where they stayed huddling in a hug. When the day eventually got brighter, Katniss headed out to the woods. Johanna didn't follow her sister. She knew she had no right of being there when Katniss had what might be her private goodbye with the woods she knew so well.

Before they knew, it was mid-day already. Johanna pulled out the Reaping outfits she had a friend in Capitol made for her and her sisters, and laid them out on her bed. She let her mother do Prim's hair and comb hers, once Prim's white-blouse-and-brown-skirt and her gray dress was on. Katniss came back not long after, straight away showering and putting on the only remaining dress on the bed: a blue, knee-length number. Their mother did, on Katniss's hair, the intricate braid Johanna had in her hair the day she got reaped. Johanna turned away and skipped down to the kitchen, for suddenly she needed that chocolate bar. Whatever the woman was thinking, the braid was definitely bad omen.

They made it out of the house early, leaving plenty of time for Prim and Katniss to check in with the Peacekeepers. Unlike the last two years, Haymitch was once early, too. Johanna spotted him heading to the square, sober and clean, as she stood on the side of the stage waiting for the reaping to start. He joined her in her waiting, and together they waited, until Dear Effie walked onto the stage and called their names.

Johanna sat there on her chair, indifferent and cold, as they again played that bullshit video about the history of The Hunger Games. Her heart started picking up pace towards the end, as she knew the time was drawing near. In a few minutes, she would know whether one of her two sisters got reaped.

By the time Effie's hand reached into the girls' reaping ball, Johanna's heart was pounding so fast she could hear it in her ears.

"And the lucky lady is... Primrose Everdeen!"

And there snapped a string in Johanna's soul.

She sat there, gripping the armrests of her chair, as events unfolded around her. People murmurs, looking at her mother with pity. Peacekeepers came and got her baby sister, escorting the little girl to the stage. And from the sixteen year olds' section, a girl in blue dress dashed forward. Her middle sister.

"I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!"

Knowing Katniss, Johanna realized well that this was going to happen. Yet, she could do nothing, aside of sitting there gripping her armrests. There was nothing she could do. Her baby sister was safe now, and her precious middle sister was going into the Games. She'd tried hard to give Katniss a chance to survive, and at this point she couldn't do more. Yet. Her next fight would be in the Capitol, once the Games was on.

Effie threw Johanna this strange look before proceeding with getting to know who the volunteer was. It was formality, really. Effie was one of those people who knew about the pictures of Katniss and Prim Johanna always carried with her whenever she was away. The escort knew well it was Katniss. But then, Johanna guessed it would sound better for the audience if Effie had asked. So yes, entertaining formality it was.

"Our first volunteer from District Twelve!" Effie announced, a proud tone in her voice. "Tell us what's your name, young lady."

"Katniss," the middle Everdeen sister answered, looking straight to the crowd who went silent for her. "Katniss Everdeen. Sister to Primrose and Johanna Everdeen."

"Well," Effie said, chuckling somewhat strainedly. "Don't want your little sister to have all the glory, eh?"

"That's not true," Katniss answered, defiantly. "I am here because I love my sisters."

_Well done, Brainless_, Johanna thought, as she watched the crowd going crazy for her middle sister. _You're blowing everyone else out of the water here._

"Alright!" Effie roared, in an attempt to control the audience. The escort crossed the stage to the boy's reaping ball, and hastily dipped her hand in. "Time for the boys!"

"And our male tribute is... Peeta Mellark."

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for reading, everyone! I'll be back on Wednesday (or Tuesday, depending on where you are) with the next chapter. Hope this one didn't disappoint!


	9. Chapters 9&10: Star-Crossed and On Fire

**AN**: Thanks for reading everyone! Welcome to my new followers Loren Sebastian, jisgote, and nothing2000. Thanks to nothing2000 for making this story one of their favourite, and special thanks to Norbert's Mom, jc52185, "Guest", Ellie82, and nothing2000 for their reviews. Hope you all will keep enjoying! :)

I started writing this chapter as two separate chapters: nine and ten, then decided that they're better together since each of them is short-ish. They still represent different segments of the story, though, so I decided to keep the numbering. The next chapter will be chapter eleven.

**Disclaimer**: The Hunger Games and its characters and its settings belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing them. This chapter has my two only O.C.s for this story: Ash Mason and Caroline Mason, Victors of District Seven, in their minor roles as Johanna's friends and fellow Victors.

* * *

**Chapter Nine: The Star-Crossed Lovers**

**and**

**Chapter Ten: The Girl on Fire**

_**The Star-Crossed Lovers**_

**Katniss**

_Peeta. Mellark._

The name rang in Katniss's head like the school's recess bell did when she accidentally stood under it one day.

She stood there in shock, as Peeta made his way out of the sixteen year old crowd. He was on his way to the stage before the Peacekeeper could even get him. At the back of the roped area, where the eighteen year olds were, Wheaton Mellark slipped hastily under the rope to volunteer for his brother. He was too late. Peeta was already on the stage, standing next to Katniss.

"Come on, you two," Effie coaxed, as she threw a quick glance backwards towards Johanna and Haymitch. "Shake hands!"

Peeta hold out a hand to shake. Fighting an urge to scream and curse the Capitol, Katniss lifted her hand to shake the outstretched hand. Peeta's hand was calloused from baking. It was warm and soothing, though. A sense of peace washed over Katniss, as she looked at the secret crush who'd also liked her. It wasn't even two days yet since their little exchange in the woods, but Peeta already looked different. He looked less like a shy boy, and more determined. In a somewhat melancholic, dignified way.

Like a hero who knew he would die in battle.

"District Twelve's tributes for the 74th Hunger Games!" Effie Trinket announced, "Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark!"

The crowd was silent. Then, from the back of the eighteen year olds' section - Gale Hawthorne. Pressing three fingers on his lips, and lifted it up for Katniss and Peeta to see. Their farewell salute for fallen miners and poor souls succumbing to starvation, diseases, or old ages. One by one, other members of the crowd copied him. Started with Wheaton Mellark, who stood nearby. Then Madge Undersee and Delly Cartwright, who huddled together at the sixteen year olds' section. It rippled through the crowd like a wave. And soon, everyone was saluting them.

Katniss pressed three of her fingers on her lips, and reciprocated the salute. From the corner of her eye, she could see Peeta doing the same next to her, strong and steady and calm.

And she didn't know why, but the tiny sense of peace in her heart soared, engulfing her body, as she caught a glimpse of him.

She got separated from Peeta as they were brought into the Justice Building for the final goodbyes. Katniss's first visitors were her mother and Prim. Her mother just cried like those other times something bad had happened, but Prim hugged her and thanked her in such a mature way Katniss had to blink some tears back.

"Take care of each other, you two," she told her mother and baby sister, as the Peacekeepers came to get them.

Her next visitor were the whole group of District Twelve Careers. Madge, Delly, Gale, and Wheaton. Katniss hugged them, as they each whispered encouragements and tips in her ears. Madge took off her golden Mockingjay pin and put it on Katniss's dress, looking steadily into Katniss's eyes as she did so.

"This belonged to my Aunt Maysilee," she quietly said to the group. "Her district token, when she went into the 50th Hunger Games. She was Haymitch's district partner and his ally. Katniss, this is now your district token."

Katniss looked down at the pin, then at her friend, before engulfing Madge in yet another hug. The girl had truly been a friend to her.

"We'd better go and see Peeta," Gale suggested, after they spent a few seconds sitting in somber silence. "There might be no time later."

The other three teenagers nodded, and they shared a somber group hug with Katniss before leaving.

Katniss sat in silence for several more minutes, before she had another visitor. It was Peeta's father, the kind man who had left breads and treats for her and Prim when Johanna was away for The 71st Hunger Games. The man who'd always helped Katniss and Peeta in their escapes from the evil Mrs. Mellark. Who'd always protected Peeta with alibis and slipped them extra food whenever possible.

"I'm sorry, Katniss," the man said, placing his hand of Katniss's shoulder sympathetically. His eyes were still rimmed with tears; Katniss knew he'd just gone and seen Peeta in some other room in this building. "You should just try to go home, really. Your poor mother's losing her mind."

"It's Okay," Katniss replied, trying her best to smile. It wasn't easy, for she had kind of forgotten how to, but she thought she managed well at the end. "Peeta's the better person. He should be the one going home."

Her own eyes welled in tears as she said that. In wishing that, sincerely as she did, she'd basically accepted that she would never go home again. She would never see Prim again. She would never run around in the woods again. She would die somewhere far away from here, in a place foreign and fake, while some heartless Capitol crowd cheered away.

Mr. Mellark averted her gaze.

"Katniss," he said, after a few seconds. "He loves you. There is no way he'll go home, because it means you won't. He knows his life is already over."

"He will go home," Katniss disagreed, looking straight down at the favourite school shoes she was wearing. "I'll make sure he will."

The baker exhaled loudly and stood up. He clapped Katniss on the back, and handed her a small packet of spiced pumpkin cookies, before walking back to the door and leaving.

Katniss curled up on the couch and cried quietly onto the short sleeve of her dress, as she said her farewell to her life.

That one last time the door opened, it was Johanna who came to get her. It was her older sister, silent and sad and proud, who ushered her to the car. It was her beloved Joey who stood by her at the platform, as she watched the district partner - who could have been her boy in an alternate reality - crying openly and unashamedly. Katniss had to look away for it made her love him more. The more she loved him, the harder it would be for her to let go of what could have been.

She only made it to her sleeping compartment in the train before she broke down in her older sister's arms.

* * *

**Johanna**

The sideways movement of the train carriage, which usually served as a lullaby for her, didn't quite work for Johanna tonight.

No matter what she did, she still couldn't sleep. At times like this, she wished Haymitch hadn't found her with those sleeping pills when they were mentoring the previous year. Had it not for her mentor's disappointed look and silence, Johanna wouldn't have had to stop ordering and taking those pills. They made mentoring more bearable.

On the other side of the bed, Katniss was sobbing in her sleep. Johanna wished her sister would just lay off the crying already, for it grated on her nerves like nothing else. Each sob made her feel more and more like a failure. She only had one task: protecting her sisters. Yet she failed miserably in it, with Katniss broken and crying like this.

_Let my luck be damned_, she thought to herself, as she threw the blanket off her lap and slipped out of the compartment. It was hers, technically, though it seemed like it would end up being Katniss's too for the journey. The girl had sneaked in and climbed on with her within thirty minutes of bedtime.

The lounge area was well-lit, signifying that she wasn't alone in her insomnia. There he was, on an armchair. Haymitch, glass of something in one hand, a stack of notes in the other.

"Lay off the drink, Old Man," she coldly scolded him, snatching the glass from his hand. "Remember your damned promise."

"It's water, Doll," the older mentor said warily, without lifting his eyes from whatever he was reading.

Johanna took a sniff at the glass and snorted. She walked to the window and threw the content out of it, onto the tracks under them.

"Water my arse," she muttered, shaking her head. "I spent enough nights in bars and clubs to know what Vodka smells like, Haymitch. And you had enough in that glass to drown my baby sister's stupid orange cat."

"Not enough to drown my lungs, Doll," he waved her off, smirking as he finally looked up at her. "And I doubt you'll want to drown Little One's beloved cat. You're already sending her beloved big sister to death."

Johanna picked up a cushion and threw it with all her might at her mentor's face, before sinking down onto a couch. Sometimes, that man just didn't know when to speak and when to shut up.

Haymitch smirked at her.

"You think killing me would solve your problem?" he chided. "You'll need me if you want to keep Sweetheart alive, Doll. So I suggest you think before you react next time."

"Whatever," Johanna muttered. She twisted her body and hauled her legs onto the couch, lowering down her back until it rested against the armrest.

"Here," Haymitch said, tossing her a bunch of paper. "Read these."

The stack disintegrated, and the sheets fell haphazardly on the floor on top of each other. Grunting, Johanna stood up and picked them up. She set herself on the floor and began reading, for she couldn't be bothered getting back up to the couch. This could be really interesting. Haymitch didn't usually take note of anything, even when mentoring.

The paper on top of the stack had a scrawly "Male, Eleven" written on it. Skim-reading, Johanna realized Haymitch had been taking notes of all those other tributes they'd seen in the reaping recap a few hours prior. There were nothing but first impressions in the notes at the moment, but it looked like there would be more in there as the Games progressed.

"The kids from Two looked like pieces of work," Johanna bluntly said as she put the stack of paper on the coffee table. "I won't be surprised if they end up mutilating some poor kid who comes their way."

"Do you remember any nice kid hailing from Two, Doll?" Haymitch asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Johanna answered, looking to the side of the room as the memories of her previous year's tributes' last moments flooded her brain. They had both died in the hands of the male tribute from Two.

"Then don't tell me something I already know," Haymitch replied dryly. "Who else do you think is interesting?"

"Smart-looking girl from Five," Johanna answered, recalling the tributes. "Female Seven. Both from Eleven."

"How about the kids from One and Four?" Haymitch asked.

"Nothing more than sponsor magnets, if I'm right," Johanna answered. "And I've been right these past two years, right?"

"Let's hope you're right this year, too," Haymitch responded, looking outside the window.

_Whatever_, Johanna thought.

"So," Haymitch said, slowly turning back to her, "how do you think we should market Sweetheart and her Loverboy to the sponsors?"

Johanna snorted.

"You realize you're asking the wrong person, don't you?" she asked. "You told me yourself I had zero talent in marketing last year."

"I sent you off to work on it, Doll," Haymitch responded, snorting back. "Though from what I see now, it looks like you haven't done anything at all since."

"I've been busy," Johanna waved him off, trying not to think of what had been occupying her the past year. "I might have time after the Games this year."

"If you're not too busy grieving," Haymitch commented warily.

Without thinking much, Johanna jumped off the floor and lunged at her mentor, grabbing him on the neck.

"Listen, Old Man," she said on his face. "I'm bringing my sister back home this year."

"With this attitude?" Haymitch asked, unfazed with Johanna's outburst. "You're a kid yourself, Doll. Sit back and learn your trade."

With a huff, Johanna released Haymitch and sank back onto the floor. As much as she hated being wrong, he was right. She needed to calm down, to focus to the task in hand.

"She's kind of devastated, just so you know," she told her mentor quietly, her mind replaying the earlier events. "She totally likes him."

"And so is he," Haymitch commented. "You would've noticed, if you hadn't been too occupied with your lovesick sister. And he's aware that you'll choose your sister. He knew he's going to die."

Johanna took a deep, painful breath, as she thought of Katniss, Peeta, and the relationship that would never be.

"You sure his reaping is pure chance?" she whispered to her mentor.

"What do you mean?" Haymitch asked, gesturing to the ceiling. Mentally smacking her head, Johanna cursed herself for not realizing they had bugging microphones around. "Every reaping is pure chance, Doll. It's just unfortunate that they picked your baby sister and your other sister's sort-of-boyfriend this year."

"Do you think the Gamemakers would be kinder if they knew those two are together?" Johanna asked, feeling childlike and vulnerable for a while.

"I don't know, Doll," Haymitch answered. "The Capitol would surely love to see the Star Crossed Lovers of District Twelve, though."

And as the mentors looked at each other, they both knew it was a lightbulb moment.

* * *

**The Girl on Fire**

**Katniss**

Johanna made her put on a new set of outfit before they arrived at Capitol. A pair of black pants, and a fitted blouse with long, roomy sleeves. Without words or explanation, her older sister also pulled her hair out of her single braid and arranged it around her face.

"This used to be Grandma's, then Pa's," Johanna said, as she reached into her own blouse and pulled out a green pendant attached to a golden chain around her neck. "Have it."

"You shouldn't," Katniss refused, grabbing her older sister's hand. "It's yours. I had - I mean, I have - Pa's jacket."

"Shut up and just wear it," Johanna shot back. For a moment, Katniss felt she was a little girl again, resenting and loving her bossy, blunt older sister at the same time. Those years seemed so far away now, with Johanna being a Victor and Katniss on the way to her own Hunger Games.

She relented and let Johanna put the necklace around her neck, adjusting the pendant once it was on.

"I'll see you outside," the older girl said. She leant forward and rubbed her nose against Katniss's - yet another childhood thing they hadn't done since they were really young. Katniss watched as Johanna slipped out of the compartment. She took the sight of her sister in, greedily, for this might be one of her last days on earth.

She closed her eyes and tried hard not to indulge in her overwhelming emotions. Tried not to think of how she would break her two sisters' hearts by being yet another carnage of The Hunger Games. Tried not to remember the fact that she would die under her own big sister's mentorship. She needed to forget them all, for she was to keep Peeta Mellark alive.

When the door slid open again, less than three minutes later, she assumed that Johanna had forgotten something and was going back to get it. But she was wrong. Standing on the door of her compartment was Peeta, her secret crush and district partner who liked - no, loved - her.

"Hey," the boy greeted, standing tentatively on the door.

"Um, hey," she replied, not sure of what to say or do. If she was to be honest with herself, the sight of him made her really, really happy. She hadn't seem him since... _since dinner last night_, she thought. And she hadn't been alone with him since that Friday afternoon before reaping day. Whenever they sat down together in the train, there were always Johanna, Haymitch, and Effie. As much as she wanted to spend time with him, she avoided being alone with him. It felt awkward, after what she'd said when he confessed his feelings towards her. And he seemed content with her decision, for he didn't seek to visit her in her compartment either. Not that he would have found her, anyway. She'd been climbing into Johanna's bed the whole journey, making the most of what were most likely her last few days with her sister.

"Effie said we're less than thirty minutes away," Peeta said, still standing at the door. His eyes looked warm, really warm as he looked at her, but the sadness she'd been seeing there since Reaping Day still lingered. Katniss wondered if she would ever see those eyes bright and warm again in her lifetime.

Stop thinking about it, Katniss, she scolded herself mentally. You've decided to get him out alive. Don't overthink it.

"Yeah," Katniss heard herself responding weakly. "You ready?"

"As ready as I could be," Peeta answered. There were sadness and determination in his voice, which made Katniss's heart, for the thirtieth or so time in six months, skip a beat. There were so many dimensions to this boy. Too many dimensions, that it would be impossible for her to fully know his heart before...

_I said stop it, Katniss!_

She must have tensed and scowled, for Peeta backed off slightly.

"Let's head outside," she suggested, as she stood up to join him. Perhaps she just needed not to be alone so that she could stop thinking about her future in the Games.

The lounge room was empty when they got there; no sight of either of their mentors or their escort. Katniss fought the urge to snuggle against Peeta, to no avail. So, she did. Her best bet for Peeta's happiness post-Games right now was to hope that she was forgettable enough he would quickly move on.

"Any guess of what the Capitol looks like?" Peeta asked.

"Didn't you see all those 'mandatory viewing' things?" Katniss asked back, surprised that he asked.

"Yes, but you know, everything might change as frequently as Caesar's hair."

Katniss chuckled. There was this ongoing game between the kids at Twelve, where they guessed what Caesar Flickerman - the Hunger Games presenter and interviewer - would look like for the year. He had never had the same hair colour twice in a row, in Katniss's lifetime.

"Ask Effie," Katniss said, after she stopped chuckling. "She lives there."

"That's cheating, Katniss," Peeta replied gently. "This is a guessing game."

"Okay," Katniss surrendered. "Go first."

"Somehow I'm imagining something which looks like a wedding cake," Peeta said. "Tiers of floors, with different widths. Painted in white. Decorated with flowers. And smells of vanilla."

"That _is_ a wedding cake," Katniss responded, shaking her head. "I'm imagining something which looks like Finnick Odair's trident, all narrow on the trunk with three prongs on the top."

"We can fit more people in the wedding cake than in the trident, Katniss," Peeta disagreed.

"Not if you make the trunk tall enough," Katniss shot back.

"Do you think it would stand?" Peeta asked, frowning in thoughts.

Katniss shrugged. "I think we need to ask Gale about that. He's the one who can usually tell."

Peeta quieted down at the mention of Gale.

"Katniss," he said, after a few moments of silence. "Do you like him? Gale?"

"As a person," Katniss answered honestly. "He's so much like a brother to me."

_And he could have been my brother, had my sister not gotten reaped_, she added in her head. She didn't say it out loud though. She didn't think Peeta needed to know that.

"Then why you got so angry at Madge when she started spending time with him?"

The question wasn't hostile, wasn't inquisitive. It was just curious and a little bit sad, like the general mood of the day. And Katniss found it impossible to react badly to it, no matter how much she wanted to.

"I... I don't know," she lied, determined not to tell Peeta about Johanna and Gale and their doomed love story. "I guess I just kind of felt betrayed, for I'd never known they like each other. They were my best friends."

"Were?" Peeta asked, interested.

"Still are, actually," Katniss corrected. "Outside of my family. My absolute best friends are my sisters."

"I see," Peeta said.

The subject of Gale got conveniently dropped, as they continued their guessing game about Capitol. It was only when a screeching, panicking Effie yelled at them to hurry and stand at their designated places they stopped and got ready to face the real Capitol.

"Holly... crap," Peeta muttered quietly, as they looked at the crowd waving at them outside.

Katniss looked on, not knowing what to do. She felt small and alone, in front of all these people who would cheer on as she fight to death.

This helpless feeling, this suffocating feeling, was similar to the one she felt when she lifted that hat off her older sister's limp body, that winter day at District Twelve train station. And she felt the need to hang on to Peeta, to cling to him for dear life like she did that day.

Quietly, she slipped her hand into his. She didn't expect any other reaction than surprise, but he squeezed her hand, giving her that calming sense of peace once more.

* * *

**Johanna**

The tribute preparation building had a big lounge room for the mentors to use when their charges were being scrubbed and plucked and dressed for the parade. Upon arriving here, Haymitch straight away disappeared with the male mentor from district Eleven, Chaff. Johanna, on the other hand, opted to stay. She still felt nervous about going to unfamiliar places in Capitol, after her last ordeal there.

"Sugar cubes?" Caroline Mason asked, holding out an open jar full of said objects.

"No, thanks _Finnick_," she answered in a mock sweet voice, rolling her eyes at her friend. Caroline was perhaps the keenest impersonator Johanna had ever seen. It would have been advantageous, if only the girl's impersonation skills were good. Most of the times, the District Seven female mentor was just unconvincing.

Caroline laughed and put the jar away. Her skinny arm found its way around Johanna's back, draped over the eldest Everdeen girl's hunched form. Of their group of four, they were the only ones sitting in this room today. Finnick, who was mentoring for District Four, was out somewhere in Capitol, undoubtedly with a client. So was Ash, Caroline's co-mentor and older brother. Johanna was lucky Caroline didn't have an assignment, for otherwise she would be sitting alone at the corner, listening to the District Two and District One mentors' endless bragging.

"Chill, Dude," Johanna heard her friend saying. "Look at me. I went in, and I came out alive. Your sister would be fine."

_Yeah_, Johanna thought annoyedly. _You went out alive because Finnick and I did your brother a favour and coaxed some rich dimwit into sponsoring you_.

"I see that someone's turning a blind eye on her own tributes here," she commented, tilting her head to look at her auburn-haired, gray-eyed friend. "What about your own kids, Moron? The girl looks promising, from what I can tell."

"Well, after that... disaster last year, Ash gave me the detachment speech," Caroline answered, her voice faltering a bit as she looked up in reminiscence. "I've been trying not to get too attached since. It seems working this time."

"Good on you," Johanna commented, toning down her brash voice as much as possible. "Enjoy your detachment, when you have a chance."

"Oh, come on," Caroline said frustratedly. She grabbed Johanna's shoulders and shook them violently. "Don't be so bleak about your sister. She's already won hearts with that 'I love my sisters' speech!"

"Hearts and a red 'x' on her back," Johanna disagreed, pushing the younger girl off her. "And stop acting like a frog on crack, your sunny disposition is getting on my nerves."

"What's wrong with being sunny?" Caroline asked, looking at Johanna. "This whole place is gloomy! It can do with a bit of sunny..."

"Crazy hyper little girl," Johanna muttered under her breath, turning her head away from her blabbering friend.

"Fretting about your sister, aren't you?" a voice from behind asked.

Johanna grimaced. She knew that voice well, from her previous years of mentoring and her stints at Capitol clubs and parties.

"No, Cashmere," she answered, turning to face the District One mentor. "I'm thanking the odds for letting another daughter of my late father and my dear mother into the Glory of the Games. We can be, you know, another Cashmere and Gloss in Victors' world. I bet you were as glad as I am now when your dear brother was reaped, weren't you?"

Now, that was a lot of acid, but considering the things Cashmere had said to Johanna in the past, it felt well-justified.

Cashmere laughed haughtily.

"I see why you got that punishment, Coal Girl," she said with gleaming eyes. "Your mouth runs really loose. Enjoyed the party?"

Great, Johanna thought bitterly. Even Queen Cashmere knows what those bastards did to me. Goodbye to Johanna's privacy.

"Geez, Cashmere," Caroline said, looking straight at the District One Victor. "Could you just shut up? You never have anything nice to say."

"You're the one to shut up here, Lumberjack," Cashmere rebuked, looking down at Caroline. "I can't understand how someone as stupid as you lasted that long in the arena. I bet you had brother dear and his merry band of friends behind you, eh?"

The former Career turned to Johanna and added, "I bet they'll also be up for getting that lame sister of yours out, Coalie."

Cashmere's remarks used to burn Johanna, and flared her to the point she wasn't afraid to drive her ax into the snotty girl's chest. However, after five or so times, it just all became stale, for Cashmere never had any new point other than how lame and low the Victors from "lesser districts" were. Nowadays, the girl wasn't much more than a poorly trained parrot to the eldest Everdeen.

So, for the good sake of entertainment, Johanna threw her next retort. "At least I won't be using her bare tits to attract sponsors."

Cashmere looked as if she was about to burst, but lucky for Johanna and Caroline, Finnick chose that very moment to barge in. The Queen Cashmere was such a coward she wouldn't dare attacking Johanna and Caroline when Finnick or Ash was around, that she just turned away and stalked off.

"Hello, Ladies," he purred, planting kisses on Johanna's cheek and Caroline's forehead. "How are you today?"

"I'm OK, I guess," Caroline answered. "I can't seem to cheer Johanna up, though. Could you help?"

"Of course," Finnick agreed confidently. His eyes moved to Johanna, looking at her. "Let me tell you this Sailor's joke. Once upon a time, there was..."

"Stop," Johanna responded, feeling both humoured and annoyed. "You've told the same story fifty times, Finn-Finn. Tell me something new."

"Trust me, my Lady," Finnick waved her off. "This story would be different. It would be more steamy. More raunchy. More..."

"It's the same old thing, really," Ash cut in, sliding into the empty spot next to Johanna. "We all know about Finnick Odair's story-making prowess, don't we?"

"Ouch. That hurts, Man," Finnick complained, looking at Ash with this wounded expression which could only be fake.

Johanna snorted, and from her other side, she could hear Caroline laughing. She'd never realized how much she'd missed this little group of Victors until this moment, when they were together once more.

"Hey, Kiddo," Ash said, after all the fuss died down. "Daddy Haymitch's looking for you. He's just outside, with your new stylists."

Johanna rolled her eyes. Of all her friends, Ash reminded her most of herself: sarcastic and blunt.

"Be right back," she told them, as she stood up and made her way to the door.

The foyer in front of the waiting room was grand, and pretty much empty if not for Haymitch, another man, and a woman. They stood close to the side wall, huddling in a quiet conversation. The woman tilted her head a bit, and waved upon seeing Johanna. Instantly, Johanna recognized her. She was this new rising star from the Capitol's design and styling competition thing, whom Johanna had met in an event last year.

"Hello again, Portia," Johanna greeted her, once they were all huddling near the side wall. "I assume you've been doing pretty well."

"Hey, Johanna," Portia responded, beaming. "Nice to see you again. You remember Cinna, too?"

Of course, Johanna remembered the man. He was currently one of the most discussed designer in Capitol - or at least he had been, the last time Johanna was here. She, too, had met him before, in the same event she met Portia at. The man had spoken to her and looked at her like a human being, not the blow-up doll other Capitol men viewed her as. Johanna had been intrigued enough that she began researching his background once she got home, and was surprised to find that he was a Capitol citizen.

What came over these two bright stylists which landed them the gig as the stylists for District Twelve in this Games was somewhat beyond Johanna.

"Hello again to you too, Cinna," she said, offering what might be her closest attempt of a genuine smile.

"Hello, Johanna. Nice to see you again," Cinna responded pleasantly. There was this subtle emphasis on the word 'again', which made Johanna wonder if he'd heard of her near-death experience.

"We've just been talking of how we're going to dress those lovebirds for the parade, Doll," Haymitch explained, smirking at Johanna. "These two has a really bright idea. All you need to do is tell us whether you like it."

"What can this bright idea possibly be?" Johanna asked, interested. Haymitch had never cared about tribute outfits. Especially tribute parade outfits, which meant some skimpy thing and coal miner helmets for Twelve.

Portia gave Cinna an encouraging look, and the man smiled.

"We're going to light your sister and her boyfriend up on fire, if you'd allow us to."

* * *

**Katniss**

She liked her stylist Cinna, but she definitely thought he was insane when he told her that Johanna had given him the consent to light her and Peeta on fire for the tribute parade.

"I hope the fire's fake," Peeta tried to joke next to her. "You'll want at least one of us alive by the end. It's not, you know, The Hunger Games, without tributes from District Twelve."

Cinna smiled and nodded.

"Don't you worry," he said, placing one hand on Katniss's forearm and the other one on Peeta's. "It's not real. You won't even feel the heat."

Katniss glanced down at her black full bodysuit. They dressed Peeta and her the same this year, and differently from all those tributes of the past years. At first, she had thought they were dressed as coals instead of coal miners this year. That was, until Cinna came over with the news that they would be on fire.

At the distance, someone shouted for them to get into the chariots. With a somewhat sinking heart, Katniss took a deep breath and climbed in, clutching to the front for dear life. The chariot shook a bit as Peeta climbed next to her, shifting its centre of mass. Cinna came around and did something to Katniss's bodysuit. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Portia doing the same for Peeta's, though the fact that she spent most of her time staring curiously at Cinna meant she hadn't really paid attention of what was happening.

"Tonight," Cinna told her, once he was done fiddling with the back of her bodysuit. "You're the girl on fire. And Peeta is your boy. Your equal, your companion on fire. Hold his hand. Smile to the crowd, for you are one proud couple."

Someone yelled for the stylists to back off, as they were about to launch the chariots. With one last smile, Cinna disappeared into one of the side door of this barn-like building. Portia tailed him not long afterwards, a huge, happy smile on her face.

Katniss turned to Peeta. Nothing must have happened yet, for his bodysuit looked totally normal. He seemed to be observing the same thing, for he just gave her one of his smiles and shrugged.

"Hold my hand," he requested, holding out a hand for her to hold. "It's good for our images. Makes it harder for us to fall over, too."

Katniss chuckled, and grabbed his hand. That nice, calming sense of peace once again washed over her, as she entwined her fingers with his. She took each second greedily, memorizing his face and hand and this warm, fuzzy feelings. This might be what she needed later for the Games. For those moments where she would starve to death, get torn apart by some freaky mutts, or get chopped up by some crazed Career tributes.

(Of course, none of those gruesome scenarios Katniss had in her head happened. Unbeknownst to her, though, that moment between her and Peeta was captured by a secret camera. The Games Memorial Committee found the recording and integrated it to the full recording of the 74th Hunger Games, several years later. It ended up becoming one of Katniss's grandchildren's favourite scene of the recording.)

One by one, the chariots left the barn. Katniss and Peeta were the last to leave, being from Twelve. The ride was unnerving, with all the shakings of the chariot and the wild cheer from the crowd, but indeed, they transformed into the boy and the girl on fire. There was a flame, coming from nowhere, trailing behind each of them as they barged through the streets of Capitol.

At one point, Peeta turned to Katniss, boyish face and blue eyes illuminated by the light of his and Katniss's flames.

"You look so beautiful tonight, Katniss."

The movements of his lips, the way it said her name, made her forgot momentarily of all her missions. She smiled as a sudden impulse of bravado washed over her.

"And so do you," she responded, as she tiptoed and pressed her lips to his.

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for reading everyone! Hope the chapter didn't disappoint. I'll see you on weekend (Saturday - or Friday depends on your timezone) with another update :).


	10. Chapter 11: The Training Hours

**AN: **Thanks for reading, everyone. Welcoming my new followers axes tridents and snares, number1don, Soonersgirl86, and Phsco13. Thanks to axes tridents and snares, number1don, and bookgirly16 for putting this story in their favourite list, and special thanks to axes tridents and snares, Ellie82, Norbert's Mom, and jc52185 for their reviews. Hope you all like this chapter too.

Writing this was... hard. I ended up having to rewrite some parts, for it didn't feel real. I still don't know how I feel about the final rewrite, but I can't dwell in this part of the plot anymore, I need to keep moving. It broke me. I need to get to the part where everyone gets happy again soon.

**Disclaimer: **THG trilogy and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing them to tell a story. This story also contains some minor O.C-s, which should be easy to spot. They belong to me.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven: The Training Hours**

**Johanna**

When they reunited after the parade, in District Twelve's floor of the Tributes' Building, both her sister and the boy refused to meet her eyes.

Which was a good thing, considering that she might break down if they did. In an ideal world, she would get both of them out, and then they would be free to be with each other. But if this world was ideal, she would've been deep in the woods outside Twelve now, with Gale by her side. If this world was ideal, she would have been on her way of being Johanna Hawthorne now, for proposals at The Seam happened as soon as the younger of the parties survived their final reaping. The fact that she was now here at Capitol, mentoring her little sister and the boy little Kitty loved so, was enough of a proof that the world wasn't at all ideal.

There were ten thousand other reasons why this world wasn't ideal, but right now, she wasn't going to dwell in it. She needed to focus on the task in hand: getting her little sister out of this stupid Games, alive.

... and trying to make it all kind and peaceful and quick for Peeta Mellark.

Effie showed them their rooms. The kids looked impressed with everything; Johanna was indifferent. They shuffled rooms every year - Haymitch's strategy, to make each mentoring memory 'more bearable'. The room Johanna had now was at one point her dead district partner's, thanks to the rotation. She quietly thanked the odds that she didn't watch him die, and that he was wary enough of her they stopped talking after her second day of crying in the train. The poor boy was all but a distant memory now, yet another face lost in the crowd.

They watched the recap of the tribute parade - and the whole twenty or so replays of her little sister kissing Peeta - over dinner. The kids looked shattered, and Haymitch sent them off to bed. As soon as they disappeared, Johanna headed for the lift and made her way down to the basement. There was this one tiny, little room Finnick had discovered his second year of mentoring, which had this crazy song machine. That was the only thing Johanna needed at the moment, which she could actually use. To tell the truth, there were other things she could do with - like that one those freaks from Six were using from time to time - but Haymitch had kept her clean throughout the years. Which was ironic and hypocritical, considering how drunk her mentor was, but nevertheless, she was thankful to him for keeping her _normal_.

The soft sound of recorded guitar and the quiet hum told Johanna that she wasn't the first to get there tonight. Stealthily, she snuck into the room and made herself comfortable on the couch, right next to Ash who was deep down in singing. He'd always sung that one same song over and over again whenever he was alone, which was a pity for he actually had a decent singing voice. And for all sakes, the song of his choice was kind of depressing. Johanna didn't understand how could someone try to combat depression by singing a song about following someone else into the dark.

"Sick much of your sister and her boyfriend?" Ash asked, once the song finished.

"Yeah," Johanna answered, sinking further into the couch with arms crossed. "They really know how to make things hard for people. 'Sif my job's not already hard enough."

Ash reached for the remote control, pressed some buttons, and put that one song - if you could call it a song at all, with the screeching and super-repetitive music - on. Johanna knew what this meant. It was a clue for serious, secret talking time. This room somehow had no bugging microphones, so it was safe. They did have a bit of problem, in that Peacekeepers guarding this building checked on this room from time to time, but those damned Capitol puppets were never around whenever the song was playing. Apparently, even Peacekeepers had _taste_.

"So," Ash asked, over the music, "your sister or the boy?"

"Drop it," Johanna snapped. "You know who's my choice."

Ash let out what looked like a sigh.

"Would you be alright if she ends up hating you?" he asked again.

"I'd rather that than she dies," Johanna answered, sure as hell. Her duty was to keep Katniss alive. Not to be liked by Katniss. She could do with one more person hating her, as long as her sister was alive.

"Would you be alright if he dies and she goes mad?"

"She won't," Johanna answered confidently. "They're sixteen. She'll find someone new."

Ash laughed and shook his head.

"Kiddo," he said, looking at Johanna. "Look at me. Look at you. Have we ever moved on? No. What did the Big Boss do, once we won? You know the answer. Who are you to think she won't turn into another one of us?"

"She'll go back home," Johanna snapped back, again. "She'll find someone new, and be a happy resident of Twelve. I'll trade places with her on the Pleasure Squad. I have no one waiting anyway."

"That boyfriend of yours?" Ash asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Moved on," Johanna waved him off. "The Mayor's daughter. Quiet, nice, blonde. Pure. Innocent. All the things I'm not."

"Ouch," Ash said, somewhat sympathetically. Johanna doubt he understood, though. Ash's girlfriend died. He didn't have to watch her with another man.

"Just shut your hole up," she told her friend, waving him off again. "If it wasn't for your note, I wouldn't have dumped him."

"If it wasn't for my note, he would have been sent to the 72nd along with Caroline," Ash answered, cold and logical. "He'd have been dead, for there was no way I'd let him win instead of my sister. Stop moping, Everdeen. Or should I say Big Everdeen, now that we have a Little Everdeen around?"

"You're a goddamned jerk, Big Mason," Johanna hissed, turning away from her friend. "You're lucky we're friends. I would have snapped your neck otherwise."

"Whatever," he replied, waving her off once more. "Do whatever you want, but don't come back crying to me if your sister goes zombie like your mother."

* * *

Ash's words still rang in Johanna's ears as she woke up, next to Katniss's sleeping form, the next morning.

_Would you be alright if he dies and she goes mad?_

She couldn't help but thinking about her mother - her Ma - and how she'd totally lost it after her Pa died. And she couldn't help but thinking about her friend Ash as well, going off the rails and being so bitter after his first love died.

She didn't want Katniss to turn into their mother. She also didn't want Katniss to turn into Ash, though that option seemed better.

Johanna wished she could be selfless enough to let Katniss do whatever her heart chose, but Johanna wasn't known for selflessness, really. She couldn't let her sister choose herself. Johanna called the shots. Katniss was going to live.

The day was still dark outside, but Johanna knew she wouldn't be able to sleep anymore. She threw the covers off her and wrapped herself in her robe, leaving her sleeping sister in the darkness of the room as she slipped out. The light at the lounge area was on. At first, she thought it was Haymitch, but as she approached, it became apparent that it wasn't her old mentor, but her boy tribute.

"Hello, Loverboy," she greeted him, as she plopped on the couch next to him.

"Hey, Johanna," Peeta greeted her back, smiling. "How did you sleep?"

"Really well, as you can see," she answered sarcastically, glancing at the clock. Three thirty in the morning. "So well I got up super early."

He laughed, seemingly unfazed by her hostility. His laughter and happy demeanour broke Johanna a bit. She couldn't bear thinking of how this boy would never go home, how he would never get to laugh and smile again, how she would have to accompany his casket back to...

She pushed the thoughts away from her head and turned to the window, watching the never-ending Capitol lights twinkling outside. And that was when she caught what she'd missed all along. Reflected on the glass was a sheet of paper with some sketching on the coffee table, a pencil on the side.

"Getting all artsy, huh?" she asked him, turning back to face him.

"Yeah," he answered her, still with the happy yet somber smile. "It helps me feeling better whenever I'm sad."

"Owww," she cooed, making this mock sad face at him. She knew it was mean, but somehow, she felt comfortable doing so - the way she felt comfortable saying all kind of things to Katniss and Prim. This boy felt like a brother to her, a little brother.

(He did end up becoming her brother, through her sister, a few years into the future. But for now, they were just a tribute and a mentor, trapped in a difficult situation in Capitol.)

He just smiled and shrugged. What happened next was kind of unpredicted, though - he asked her back.

"What's yours?"

"My what?" she snapped at him.

"Your way of... running away from things," he said, tentative but gentle.

The question silenced her. She had never thought of that thing before. Johanna did not run away from things. She took them all in stride.

"I don't have one," she answered concisely, not willing to explain things to this boy. She couldn't get too attached. She was slating this boy to die, so that her sister could live.

He was quiet for a bit.

"I remember talking to you in the Justice Building the day you got reaped," he eventually said, looking at her.

By reflex, Johanna snapped her head and made the "bug around" gesture, only to realize later that Peeta had been reaped anyway. The fact that he'd gone and see Johanna in the Justice Building that day wouldn't change anything now.

And so, she agreed. "The memory's mutual, Loverboy. You weren't much of a looker those days, if I remember correctly."

Other boys - even Finnick and Ash, whom Johanna considered her brothers - would have been pissed at her remark. But Peeta, Saint Peeta, just laughed as he acknowledged the truth behind the sentence. Puberty usually didn't do boys good.

"Here," he said, once he stopped laughing. "Look at this."

He handed her the sketch he had been working on. For a second, she just stared at it, figuring out who the three figures were. Then a familiar jawline and another familiar lips registered in her brain, and slowly, she started realizing whom Peeta had been sketching.

"Never realized you fantasize about Katniss and I and Gale," she told him, handing back the sketch. It took all her might to fight the urge to throw it. The thing felt like a sharp knife in her hand. Piercing.

He laughed again, looking so boyish and innocent in his laughter.

_Damn_, Johanna thought. _Why do you have to be so likeable?_

"I remembered the way you three used to be," he explained. "Walking around Twelve, being playful and happy, not caring a dime about the world. Then you got reaped, Johanna, and you had that destroyed, sad look in your face."

He paused, before continuing, "that look gave me nightmares for days."

"Glad to have been a star of your nightmares, Blondie," Johanna said sarcastically, smirking. "Did you dream of me last night?"

Peeta turned away, and blushed a little.

"Do you know anywhere where we can talk in private here?" he asked.

"Sure," Johanna answered, the picture of the rooftop entering her head. "Don't tell me you're into me or something, though. I'll rip your throat."

He turned back to her, and said, firmly but kindly, "no. I've never been into you."

* * *

They got to the rooftop, and chose a hidden spot at a corner, sitting across each other.

"Spill, Blondie," Johanna ordered Peeta, looking straight into the boy's eyes. They looked somewhat... guilty. As if he had witnessed something he shouldn't.

"Umm... alright," the boy said. He looked down for a few seconds, then lifted his gaze back and said, "is the rumour true?"

"What rumour?" she asked, trying to remember what rumour people hadn't started about her.

"You, Katniss, and Gale, in the woods."

She opened her mouth, about to confirmed that they were indeed in the woods, until she saw a subtle hint of jealous curiosity in Peeta's eyes and realized what he truly meant.

And she laughed. And laughed and laughed until she was a crumpled ball in the ground and her stomach hurt.

"Seriously, Blondie!" she chided him, after she could breathe again. "I thought you were smart enough not to trust those district gossips!"

"Thought I'd ask," he defended himself, looking red but relieved. "Thanks for confirming."

"Well, I haven't confirmed - "

She trailed off when she saw that flash of painful jealousy, again, on his face.

"Okay, okay," she said, smirking and shaking her head. "It was never Gale and I and Katniss. And stop dreaming about _menage-a-trois_, Loverboy. I can give you twenty reasons why it's not as lucrative as it sounds."

Peeta smiled, and she honestly didn't really know what was more prominent: the deer-in-headlights guilt or the relief.

"I've been having dreams about it for about five years now," he admitted sheepishly. "Or more likely, nightmares."

"What were you five years ago?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow. "Eleven?"

"Yeah," he answered. "The nightmare went through puberty with me."

Once again, she was reduced into a curled up, laughing ball on the floor.

"You... men...," she spat, through her laughters, "... are ... all... pigs!"

He looked at her momentarily, and did the unthinkable - laughing alongside her, hysterically on the floor.

She stopped laughing, for the sight of him broke her a little bit more than she already was. This boy was so full of life, and it killed her to think how she'd wished for it to be taken away from him, just so that her sister could live.

"Peeta," she said, quietly, later. "What's your plan?"

He looked away from her.

"I'll stay with Katniss," he said, sad but unwavering. "Protect her, help her, as long as it allows."

"And when it comes down to the two of you?" she probed, her voice breaking a bit at the end.

He looked up to the sky above them.

"I'll do what's right," he said, eventually. "I'll let her live."

"Do you realize what all of those mean?" she asked again, feeling both glad that this boy existed for her sister, and guilty that she wouldn't be able to help him.

"Yes," he answered. "I'm going to die."

She wanted to reach to him, to hug him like she would do Katniss whenever her sister was sad, but she knew she had no right to. So, she just sat there, trying not to look at him, waiting for him to say more things.

"Boy," she finally said, turning her head away from him to hide her myriad of emotions. "I'll mentor you. I'll buy you as much time as possible with her. And... and if I can save a second person, it would be you. Trust me. It would be you."

* * *

**Katniss**

The breakfast spread in front of her was mouth-watering, but she couldn't stomach anything.

She blamed it on nerves, and on the events of the past few days. On the endless list of upsetting things she'd witnessed in the Training Room, on that look the Career girl from Two - a fellow knife-thrower - shot her every time they met. On the fact that the boy from Two seemed obsessed with Peeta - obsessed with breaking his neck, to be exact.

On the fact that individual training was coming, and she would get to touch a bow again, after all those session she spent throwing knives.

Johanna held a pastry under her nose, in an attempt to coax her to eat.

"Come on!" her big sister exclaimed in frustration, after a few futile seconds. "The Games hasn't started yet! You won't impress the Gamemakers by starving!"

"Oh, Johanna Dear!" Effie exclaimed, looking sympathetically at Katniss. "Your sister just wants to keep her figure for her man! And in your Games, you showed such a great skill for starving we still admire here in Capitol. She can definitely use it in her individual training!"

To tell the truth, Katniss had never indulged in food, even after she became a Victor's sister and started to have better options. But she hadn't starved in three years or so, and thus she doubt she would be as good at starving as Johanna had been, three years ago.

"Fine," Johanna rolled her eyes, deciding to pop the pastry into her own mouth instead. "Don't come crying to me if she faints in front of them."

Haymitch snarled at the banter, before continuing to stuff his face. Even if he was the only male being in the room, he looked right at home. They were some kind of family: Haymitch the easy-going, sometimes infuriating father; Effie the caring, if not somewhat vain mother; Johanna the snarky, sassy older sister; and Katniss the little sister who needed to be taught about everything.

Katniss felt guilty for feeling this way, but she couldn't help but imagining how this family would have been complete if only Prim was here as well.

Even Haymitch and Effie were better parents than her own mother was.

"Where's our darling boy Peeta?" Effie asked in her accented voice. Of the two tributes - no, of the other four people in their floor - he was definitely her favourite. Actually, he was everyone's favourite. Even Haymitch, who was Katniss's mentor on paper, seemed to have taken an immense liking on the boy Katniss liked so.

Well, Katniss, she told herself, as she tried forcing a spoonful of eggs into her mouth, isn't that what you want? For everyone to like him more than they like you?

"Locking himself in his room. Some quiet time or something," Katniss heard Johanna answering. "I'll take some food to him. Kitty, what does your boyfriend like?"

"I thought you know," she told her sister, without much thinking. "You've been spending all your time with him these past few days. And for heavens' sake, he is not my boyfriend! I just got carried away in the parade, that's it."

Johanna snorted.

"Say whatever, Brainless," she taunted, as she stood up and poured a cup of hot chocolate. "It's obvious you're jealous. Which is justified, for your boy's soooo good."

She proceeded to steal a bread roll from Katniss's plate, before making her way to Peeta's room.

Knowing both her sister and Peeta, Katniss knew that there was nothing between the two but friendship and a mentor-mentee relationship. But still, Johanna's teasing flared something she didn't know exist in her heart. It was ridiculous and futile, for Peeta wasn't hers and would never be. She would go to the Games and keep him alive, then let him go with his life. He would live a Victor's life, which wasn't ideal, but at least he wouldn't die and that kind heart wouldn't be wasted.

Katniss felt her eyes welling up at the thought.

"Oh, Katniss Darling!" Effie exclaimed, upon seeing her tears. "Don't you cry! You know Our Johanna just like to goof around, don't you?"

Katniss nodded, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. Effie didn't need to know what was actually happening. No one needed to know that she was planning to die.

"Done poking around and crying?" Haymitch asked, sneering. "We need to get your training started."

"Should... shouldn't we wait for Jo and Peeta?" Katniss asked back.

"You will be trained separately, from this day on," Haymitch answered. "The Boy's own request."

Well, that hurt, but at the same time, Katniss realized this would make things more bearable. She'd been completely torn between soaking in Peeta's presence and trying to pry herself away from him these past few days. Most of the time she lost to her own feelings, so it was only for the better that they wouldn't see each other much from now on.

Haymitch led her down the building, to a room which looked like a cleaning supply cabinet but was full of bottles instead. There was only enough room for two people standing, so she made herself content with it, looking at the mentor she'd grown to respect and like.

"I'm not hoping you appreciate this little haven of mine, but this is about the only bug-free room in the building," the mentor said, glancing sideways at her. "I know of another one, but your sister's claimed it."

"S'okay I guess," Katniss muttered weakly. "Whatever you want."

Haymitch chuckled.

"Still don't want to go home, aren't you?" he asked her, looking at her.

"I want him to go home," Katniss answered, averting her mentor's gaze for she was afraid her eyes would betray her. "He's the better person."

"But what about you?" the mentor asked, a hint of satirical sadness in his voice. "You have a lot of fire inside you, Sweetheart. You can be something."

"And what's this something?" Katniss asked back stoically.

"I'll let you know when the time comes," Haymitch answered mysteriously. "Now, let's work on what you're gonna brag about in front of them fools this afternoon."

* * *

**Johanna**

As soon as she saw Katniss after the Session with the Gamemakers, Johanna knew her little sister was in trouble.

"What is this?" she demanded, stopping the younger girl in front of the bedroom door.

Katniss grabbed Johanna's wrist and pulled her into the bedroom, slamming and locking the door behind them.

"Joey," the girl tribute breathed out, looking at her sister with wide, scared eyes. "I think I've just blown it all up."

"Literally?" Johanna asked, intrigued yet confused of what Katniss what trying to say.

"No," Katniss answered, panicking even more with each second. "I shot that stupid apple in their stupid pig's mouth. I shot at them."

Heavens, Johanna thought, as a maniacal grin broke on her face, I can't love this girl more. It's just about time those Morons have something like this.

Knowing that the bugging microphones were around, she couldn't say it out loud. So, she made that 'bug around' gesture and pulled her sister into a happy hug.

"Sleep it off," she told Katniss afterwards. "You'll feel better. And look better too, if it's one of your concerns."

And it was right after she'd said it that she realized something: as great as shooting at the Gamemakers sounded, those bastards still called the shots, and for all things possible, Katniss might be marked for immediate elimination from the Games.

Katniss gave her that half-arsed smile and set off to take a nap. Johanna almost followed, for she felt like a wreck, but she decided against at the end. She could use her time to either rock her sister to sleep like when they were kids, or figure out what stood against Katniss after such act of 'defiance'. Her mentor's logic told her to opt for the latter, and thus she did that.

She took the lift down to level four, trying her luck finding Finnick. Of course, at this time of the year, luck belonged to the various Capitol ladies wishing to use Finnick's service, so she went back to the lift empty-handed. Next stop was up at level seven, where she found Ash yelling at his cowering girl tribute, who had apparently 'screwed up big time'. She stepped back into the lift immediately, for there was no way she could fit into their little mentor-mentee heart-to-heart.

She considered going to the Training Room to eavesdrop on the Gamemakers, but if Katniss was already screwed, Johanna would just get her killed by doing that. So, with a sour, uneasy mood, Johanna let the lift take her back to her floor.

Peeta and Haymitch were sitting together playing chess when she stomped in. They looked at her as if she was a strange freak from circus. Looking at her own reflection on the hallway mirror, she could see why. She looked like a wrecked clown who'd just run through a tornado.

"A squirrell up your butt, Doll?" Haymitch asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"No," she answered harshly. "Your mentee..."

Her voice trailed off, for she realized Katniss might be awake and listening.

Taking deep, long breaths to calm herself down, she strode across to her old mentor and crouched down, whispering as closely as possible on Haymitch's ear, "shot at the Gamemakers."

What she got in response to her revelation was a long, long inhale - then a loud, mad cackle which rattled the chair.

"That was it," Haymitch gasped, in between cackles, "that was it!"

"Was what?" Johanna hissed, looking at her mentor.

"Between me and your sister, Doll," the older man refused to answer. "You'll know when the time comes."

Johanna spent the next thirty minutes coaxing, bugging, and blackmailing Haymitch, but her mentor kept quiet about whatever it was. At the end, she gave up and stormed out, joining her sister for a nap.

"Don't you worry about her, Boy," she heard Haymitch talking to Peeta, as she made her way to Katniss's room. "She's just one of those small yapping dogs - what do you call them? Chihuahua?"

Johanna might or might not have thrown a wooden apple at her mentor right then.

They woke up just in time for the scores announcement. All members of Team Twelve - Cinna, Portia, and the prep teams included - were waiting for them in the lounge when they appeared, slightly hazy but curious.

"Oh, you two!" Effie chided them. "You could at least brush your hair, before you come out and meet the boys!"

"I like your natural looks, girls," Cinna helped them, smiling. "Fresh and honest."

Johanna opened her mouth to reply, but then the announcement started, and so she sat back and watched instead. As much as she couldn't be bothered, she was a mentor, too, and knowing the scores was important. If she wanted to keep both her sister and her mentee alive.

The Careers from One and Two got high scores. So did Finnick's boy and girl from Four. Girl Five did pretty well. Girl Seven, whom Johanna saw having a few from Ash, actually did well - Johanna suspected she was meant to be 'pulling a Johanna' and not showing off. Boy Eleven did well, his twelve year old district partner scored higher than most other twelve year old tributes did throughout the years.

Johanna drew in a deep breath, when they said Peeta's name. She only released it after they announced his score of eight. A relief washed over her, as she winked at her mentee. Of all her mentees so far, Peeta was the only one who truly listened to her and trusted her. Her plan seemed to be going well.

Her sister's picture flashed on the screen. Johanna snapped her head back, as the nervousness crept back into her head. She knew the Gamemakers, to some extent. They would be more than happy to give a tribute the red x mark on the back, when necessary. Sometimes it was a strategy to gear more sponsors towards a tribute they were fond of. Some other times, it was to make sure the tribute die quick.

And surely, she knew them.

Her little sister was given an eleven.

That was higher than anyone else in the tributes' lineup this year, and higher than the Careers'.

Looked like they were a little bit doomed.

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for reading. I've been revisiting the plot and changing (minor) details, so it might take me a bit longer than usual to update. The next chapter should come sometime during the next week, though. Till then! :)


	11. Chapter 12: The Circus

**AN: **Hello again! Thanks for reading this. Welcoming my new follower xomagooxo. Special thanks for jc52185, Ellie82, and Norbert's Mom for their reviews. Hope you all would enjoy this :).

The last chapter was super sad, in my opinion, and rewriting the next part of the plot took me shorter than I'd imagined, so, here it is. Chapter Twelve. Here we'll see Katniss's and Peeta's interviews, and get The 74th Hunger Games started. Hope it won't disappoint.

**Disclaimer:** Suzanne Collins owns The Hunger Games trilogy, its characters, Panem, and all the familiar settings. I have minor O.C.s for this story, but those are all I have, really :).

* * *

**Chapter Twelve: The Circus**

**Katniss**

The red dress looked pretty on the hanger, but once it was on, it was no longer pretty. It was breathtaking.

She stood still as Cinna did the last works adjusting all the creases and pleats. Johanna stood at the back of the room, and she eyed her sister through the mirror, gouging the older girl's reaction.

The whole district knows red looks terrible on you.

Johanna's words, spoken when they were thirteen and eleven, came back to her. She had never worn red since that day; she simply believed it looked terrible on her. What she saw on the mirror today, though, betrayed that. She looked radiant in red.

Her sister seemed to be travelling through memory as well, for the next second, she heard this.

"You know, I was lying when I said red looks terrible on you."

She was about to turn around and face her sister, but Cinna's firm hand on her legs stopped her from doing so. He was busy with the skirt; draping and straightening as if everyone's lives depended on it.

"Why?" she asked Johanna. "Because you hated me?"

"No," Johanna answered, gazing to the side of the room. "I just didn't want you to come to Pa's medal ceremony in red."

"Yet you came in red," Katniss responded, emphasizing on 'you' and 'red'.

"Not my first choice," Johanna replied, shrugging.

They stood there in this emotional silence for a few minutes, as Katniss took in Johanna's lies and confessions.

"Alright," Cinna said, as he stood up and patted Katniss's bare shoulder. "We're ready to go. Remember. Twirl."

Cinna had told Katniss earlier that the dress was made for twirling, and that she had to make sure she did that during her three minutes with Caesar Flickerman. Katniss didn't know why, but she trusted Cinna and he'd promised to give her a cue, so she agreed.

Cinna and Johanna saw her off to the backstage, before taking their own spots in the audience. Katniss stared at her sister's back as Johanna disappeared from the view. The eldest Everdeen was in another Cinna-designed outfit: a pair of flared gray pants and a white blouse embellished with red specks which formed flowers. The red of the specks matched Katniss's dress, and the look on Cinna's face told her it was intentional. Johanna and her were sisters, different things cut from the same fabric. In his subtle, clever way, Cinna was trying to make the world see it.

"Hey."

Turning around, she saw Peeta in this Capitol-style suit. She couldn't help but feeling disappointed as she saw his hair. They slicked it back, taking away those loose curls Katniss adored. It didn't last for long, though, for he'd offered an arm to her. Remembering Effie's lecture from earlier in the day, Katniss took it and did her best to smile, praying it didn't come out as a scowl instead.

Around half of the tributes were already taking their places in the line, so they followed suit. Katniss's nerves were getting her like anything, and on top of that, she couldn't bite her nails, since the polish was apparently toxic. She was already close to imploding, when the pair from Two stopped near her on their way to their spot up the line.

"Well, well," the girl said, smirking. "Aren't these the lovebirds from Twelve?"

Everyone's heads turned to them. Katniss caught a glimpse of a few sorry faces, a few scared ones, and some other amused ones.

"Yeah," she heard Peeta answering for them both. "You're Clove, right? I'm Peeta, and this is Katniss, in case you didn't catch our names."

"Your names aren't important, Twelve," Clove's district partner - Katniss remembered his name was Cato - sneered. "Say whatever you want tonight. We are going to destroy you. That slut Johanna Everdeen is going to drown her sorrows fucking the entire Capitol."

If not for Peeta's quick reflexes, Katniss would have launched herself on them. His firm arm around her waist was the only thing anchoring her to reality right now. Slowly, she regained whatever limited composure she had. She turned away from the District Two jerks, who were ushered to position by some bystanding Peacekeepers. From the on, she stayed still on her spot, only moving every time someone got called in and the line got shorter.

The shorter the line got, the more nervous Katniss got. She watched her fellow tributes - her competitors, as of tomorrow morning - talking of their families, their strategies, and things which made them who they were. The more she saw about them, the more and more intense the guilt she felt over what she would end up doing in the arena. They all were to die, if Peeta was to live.

When her turn came, Peeta sent her off with a "good luck" and a kiss on her temple. She tried smiling at him, but her mouth was too stiff to actually do that. It was still stiff when she made her way through the stage - careful not to trip in her dress and heels - and sat down on that hot seat, in front of a blue-haired Caesar Flickerman.

"Katniss Everdeen!" the presenter exclaimed, beaming at her. "How is everything going?"

"Alright, I guess?" Katniss answered, not knowing what else to say.

"Of course it would be alright, Katniss," the presenter said, glancing at the crowd for a bit. "With your lovely big sister to show you the way, what can go wrong? Hi, Johanna!"

Katniss couldn't help but giggle nervously, as Caesar waved to a spot on the crowd, and the spotlight and the camera moved to Johanna. Her sister was smiling - no, snarling - and waving back at Caesar, a glint of something Katniss hadn't seen in years in those big brown eyes. Fire.

"How's your sister as a mentor?" Caesar baited her. "Is she bossing you, or is she pampering you?"

"No, not really," Katniss answered. "We... uhm, if anything, we're just trying to... exist together peacefully."

The crowd roared with laughter. Katniss guessed sibling rivalry wasn't something unheard of in Capitol.

"You said you love your sisters," Caesar continued, "and you volunteered for your little sister, Primrose. Any message for her? And for Johanna as well, if there is any?"

Katniss drew a deep breath.

"I'll do you proud," she said, determined through the trembling of her voice. "Remember that I love you."

As soon as the last sentence left her tongue, she felt both relief and remorse. Relieved, for she'd said that out loud. Remorseful, for it had basically given away what she would do in the Games: laying down her life.

"Of course they will, Katniss!" Caesar said sympathetically. "We all will. A girl as fiercely loving as you will be impossible to forget."

He paused and winked at her, before continuing, "I'm sure your district partner Peeta would agree with me."

Katniss giggled, for she couldn't think of other things to say or do. The audience cooed, and she blushed. Her brain couldn't comprehend any other thing to say.

"Ah, the blushing maiden!" Caesar jovially teased her. "Is there anything else you're dying to say, Katniss?"

"No, nothing, really," Katniss answered. One glance at the audience reminded her of something, though. She had to twirl, for Cinna.

"I'd like to thank my stylist Cinna, though," she quickly added. "I... I really love this dress."

Her jump of ideas must have been confusing, for no one said anything.

In the audience, Cinna gave her the twirl gesture. Katniss stood up and lifted a hand above her head. She closed her eyes, as her feet moved and spun her body around, again and again. Suddenly she was five again, laughing and playing with Johanna and baby Prim in the

Meadow of district Twelve, dancing and spinning until they turned dizzy.

And likewise, she only stopped once she was too dizzy to carry on.

"Wow!" Caesar exclaimed. There was a sincerity in his voice that made Katniss wonder what she'd looked like. "Katniss Everdeen! The girl on fire!"

Her buzzer went off, so she made her way to the back of the stage, joining the other tributes. From behind the giant boy tribute from Eleven, Rue from Eleven beamed at her. She smiled back, as her nerves wound down and her soul slowly came back down to earth.

They had Peeta on the stage now. He was currently asking Caesar to sniff him to see if he smelt like roses. Katniss's heart leapt again, as she realized how at ease, how happy her love looked. She glued her eyes on the screen, burning his serene, happy face into her memory. That face, that smile, worth a thousand lifetimes to her. Suddenly she felt less scared, less bleak about tomorrow. Things would be alright. With Peeta Mellark in it, the world would be fine. He had enough in him to make everyone happy.

"So, Peeta," Caesar asked, "we've confirmed with Katniss that there is indeed something between you two. What is this something?"

Peeta looked wistfully at the dome above him, before turning back to Caesar.

"She has no idea what she means to me," he said, a sad undertone in his voice. "She makes my world beautiful, just by being there. Knowing her, she would probably scowl at me and tell me to stop lying, but really, she doesn't know the effect she has on people."

"So, I assume you're an item then," Caesar concluded. "How do you feel about going here with her?"

"Well," Peeta said, "we're not an item, and with the way things look now, I don't think I'll live long enough for it to happen. But, whatever we are, I know I would protect her 'til the end. Katniss Everdeen would be your Victor."

The ride back to level Twelve was silent. They stood at opposite corners of the lift. Katniss tried not to catch Peeta's eyes. It would be too painful.

They slipped back to their rooms to change once they arrived. Johanna came knocking on Katniss's door sometime later, saying that they were playing the interview recording. Knowing that this would be one of those last moments she could spend with the sister she'd known her entire life, Katniss came out and sat with her quiet, sad sister. Peeta bailed out, and so did Haymitch, so there were only them and Effie. The mood was somber, too somber it was suffocating.

"You were really on fire, Kitty," Johanna said, once they got to the start of her interview. "See it for yourself."

And sure, she was. That skirt Cinna fussed and fiddled with transformed into this burning flame once she twirled. She watched in awe as the girl on fire took the stage, enticing everyone with her burning flame.

"Oh, Katniss Dear!" Effie praised. "That's the most exciting thing I've ever seen!"

She smiled, genuinely, at the escort. Effie meant well. No matter how she was like, she cared.

Katniss spent her next three minutes trying to zone out Peeta's interview recap, to no avail. The sentences penetrated her brain like nothing else. He would die for her. The kind boy she knew and loved would trade his life for hers. She couldn't let it be.

Dinner passed quietly, and soon, it was time for Katniss and Peeta to say goodbye to their mentors and Effie. Only the stylists and prep team would be allowed to see them the next morning.

"Stay away from the bloodbath," Haymitch said, before he left, "you'll stay alive for longer."

Effie hugged them tearfully, saying that she would miss them terribly and that she would pray for them. It sounded shallow, but sincere, and Katniss found herself thinking of how she would miss her escort, too.

Johanna was the last one out of the room. She hugged Peeta first, whispering things Katniss didn't quite catch. When she reached Katniss, though, she was all emotional - as emotional a Johanna could be. Katniss thought her sister would never let go of their tight, teary embrace. When she eventually - and reluctantly - did, she did something Katniss hadn't seen her doing for years. Smiling.

"Just be yourself, Brainless," she said, rubbing their noses together. "I believe in you."

Katniss smiled back and nodded, burning her sister's face, one last time, into memory.

"Joey," she said, reaching for the pendant Johanna had given her on the train "Could you take this to Portia? I want it as Peeta's district token."

She was expecting an outburst, but Johanna just smiled and kissed her on the temple.

Katniss cried.

Peeta took her to the roof, shortly after Johanna left. He was unusually quiet and pensive, and Katniss couldn't blame him for that. For all he knew, he was heading for slaughter.

"Katniss," he asked, after a while, "what are we?"

"Star-crossed lovers?" she asked, trying to make a joke.

He smiled sadly.

"Wish I'd been braver," he said. "We could've had years."

"And be more broken by the end?" Katniss asked sadly.

Peeta cupped her face in his hands and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"And be happier in our lives, even just for a bit," he corrected.

A surge of emotion washed over Katniss. She fell into Peeta's arms and held him tight, tears flowing again onto his shirt.

"It's okay," he gently said. "It's okay. You'll be alright. You'll go home, back to Prim. Back to Madge. Back to Gale - I wish I'd realized earlier that he wasn't your - never mind."

"Peeta," Katniss whispered, deciding she would hold it no more."Gale was my sister's boyfriend. And until today, Jo still loves him. There's no way I'd have been with him."

Peeta muttered something which sounded like 'damn'.

"She won," Katniss continued, "and she was..."

"Sold," Peeta finished for her. "She couldn't do it to him. Couldn't do it to you all. Couldn't risk your lives. She was a puppet, held on strings by Capitol. Katniss, I don't want to be such a thing. I want to still be me when I die."

"Then why are you wishing victory upon me?" she asked, not accusing but confused.

He took a long pause, before answering, "because I believe you can change things."

* * *

**Johanna**

When the day came, she didn't want to wake up.

"Get over yourself, won't you?" she heard Haymitch sneering from outside the door, taunting her for her cowardice. "Get out of there! I know you hear me, Everdeen."

Everdeen. The name which tied her and Katniss and what they were. That was all he needed to bring her back down to the cruel earth, where her sister was facing bloodbath in just a few hours' time.

"Coming," she responded, her voice hoarse and somewhat hostile. "Five minutes. Lay off the knocking, wouldn't you?"

She rose up and washed off the traces of her tears before coming out to meet Haymitch and the reality. She couldn't let them see her cry. Johanna Everdeen never cried. She was good in masking sadness and fear with hostility, though, so, hostile it was for her this morning. Icy glares at everyone who dared, stiff shoulders and lips pursed thin they nearly disappeared.

The screens of the Mentors' Viewing Room were still blank when they got in. Most of the other mentors were already there, though, chatting to one another in these strained conversations. She found Finnick in conversation with his mentor Mags, who wasn't exactly young but was extremely good at what she did. She also spotted Caroline, who was trying to lighten the mood by doing her stupid dance movements. Ash was also there, sitting at the corner throwing darts on a board. Johanna made her way to her viewing station, ignoring all other commotions. She couldn't bear to talk to anyone right now. All she wanted to do was yelling and screaming abuses.

Even after all the training and planning, she still wished she could pull Katniss out of the Games. And Peeta too, for that matter. Right here, right now. Before it started. Because she knew they would never be the same again, once they'd been in it.

"Poll results are out," Ash said, plopping down next to Johanna. He twirled the dart he still held in his hand. "Both your sister and the boy are in Capitol's favourite five."

"So?" Johanna asked harshly.

"So you'll get sponsors, if they make it past bloodbath," Ash answered coldly.

"Get lost, Big Mason," Johanna replied, as coldly as Ash had been.

"No, Big Everdeen," Ash responded, grabbing Johanna's chin with his free hand. "Look at me."

Johanna swatted her friend's hand. She looked at him, though, for she knew he was one of her only anchors to reality. The only person able to detach himself from things as well as she was able to.

"You're hurt. You're scared. How can you be a good mentor by being this little mouse?"

Johanna looked on. Those words were the very thing she'd said to Ash the year his sister Caroline was sent to the Games.

"Get over yourself and bring Little Everdeen out."

With that, he stood up and walked to his station, casually throwing the dart above Cashmere's head as he passed the board.

Johanna closed her eyes, before returning to her viewing screen. Something had changed when she was deep in that hard conversation. It was no longer dead. It was alive and glowing, with the image of the Golden Cornucopia on it.

A desperate scream formed in her throat, but she pushed it down. Like what her friend had just said, there was little use of being mousey and scared. All she needed was focus. And calculation. And just the right amount of manipulation.

So, she focused. And looked on, as her sister and the boy whom she'd mentored and grown a sisterly love for rose on their plates.

And lost it all, when she saw both of them bolting towards the Cornucopia, instead of away as instructed.

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for reading everyone! I'll see you later this week with the recently-rewritten Chapter Thirteen, which covers Katniss and Peeta's whole time in the 74th Hunger Games Arena. Till then!


	12. Chapter 13: The Two Victors

**AN: **Hello! Thanks for reading. Welcoming my new follower and favouriter (hell, is that a word? lol) itsybitsybookworm. Special thanks to jc52185 and axes tridents and snares for their reviews. Every hit, follow, favourite, and review brightened up my day in a way nothing else could, not even being praised by the boss when I'm doing something good at work. Thanks so much for all the love you guys showed this story. Hope this will continue entertaining you :).

This chapter marks the end of 'The Hunger Games' arc of the story. We're Catching Fire from the next chapter on. It wasn't the easiest to write, for I have to maintain both the action of the Games and the internal turmoils of Johanna and Katniss throughout it. This will touch a rather sensitive issue (related to what Johanna and Finnick were made to do by President Snow, in the real THG trilogy and here). It won't be graphic, but feel free to skip it if you don't feel comfortable.

Happy reading!

**Disclaimer: **THG trilogy and its characters and settings belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing. This story will contain some minor O.C.s I created for the purpose of the plot.

* * *

**The Two Victors**

**Katniss**

_"I'm not allowed to bet, but if I can, I'll be betting on you."_

Those words of encouragement her stylist said before she stepped up that plate echoed in her head, as she scanned the plates next to hers for Peeta. People liked her. People believed in her. They would sponsor her. They would help her save Peeta.

She found him nearby, four plates away to her right, angled for a run towards the Cornucopia. He was planning on going there.

She, too, turned to the Cornucopia and had a quick scan of what was on. Her eyes immediately spotted a bow and a quiver of arrow - laying at the mouth of the Golden Horn itself. There were other weapons and other items scattered around and in it. Food. Backpacks.

It would've been a perfect hiding place, if only the Careers of One, Two, and Four weren't there. The past Games saw the Career alliances hiding in there, setting up camps and hoarding things and being greedy and cruel in general. So, she forgo the idea and had a quick sweep of what was around, thinking of where to go after she'd gotten her supplies.

...yes, she _was_ going to the Cornucopia. No matter what Haymitch said. She'd watched Johanna's games, and witnessed for herself how hard it would be to win without a weapon and without supplies. Any weapon, and any supply, could make that difference between life and death. And she had to live as long as it was possible for her, to protect the boy she loved. Peeta Mellark was going out of this place as a Victor. Katniss Everdeen would make sure it happened.

The area around the Cornucopia was mainly trees and woods, with exception to that lake on the opposite side from where she stood. The lake was a pretty open area, and she quickly ruled it out in her brain. That left them with the forest. It was impossible to tell which direction was best, for the time being, so anywhere would do, actually.

As soon as she had the weapon and Peeta, she would make a dash to whichever entry point closest to her for the time being.

The buzzer went off. She jumped off her plate and ran forward, sprinting like she'd never been before. The months of training had made her quick and strong; she ploughed through other running tributes like they were dummies, dodging and jumping and rolling to that bow and quiver of arrows. At some point, someone might have grabbed her ankle, and she might have kicked the person off without looking. At some other point, she saw a flash of silver before her eyes, and before knowing it, dodged it and pushed off the wielder hard to the ground, not even stopping. The weapon, the weapon, her weapon. That was all she could think about. Still, someone else got there before her. Not Female One, the only other archer in the group, as she'd expected. Peeta Mellark got there before she did.

"RUN!" he screamed at her, grabbing her arm as he whisked her sideways. She ran alongside him - snatching up two backpacks on her way - as he led them through the bloodbath, ignoring fights and screams and blood and death. Tributes - she couldn't really make out who they were, for everything was a blur and everyone was bloodied and manic - pounced on them, left and right. She kicked off a few, punched off a few, and kept running. Someone charged on them with a sword. Female One - Glimmer, or something like that. A flash of something in Peeta's hand, and blood spurt on them both. Glimmer's lifeless, limp body, slumping onto the ground. Things blurred for her, the sight, the scream, anything, until the browns and greens of the woods blended into the scene, and the bloodbath screams were no more. They ran and ran and ran, into the woods and away from the madness. Away from the Careers.

* * *

**Johanna**

She didn't even remember screaming, for her mind was somewhat cloudy, but as the cloud disappear from her brain, she realized that most eyes in the room were on her. And that her hands were on her mentor's forearm, gripping it so tightly she could feel the bone beneath the muscles and the layer of fat.

"You need to get another grip, Doll," Haymitch grumbled next to her, his eyes fixed on his screen as he brought up the sponsorship "That hurts."

She let go of him and reached for her glass of water, taking a deep breath to still her thumping heart. She didn't know whether to be angry that her tributes didn't listen to her, be glad that they were both alive and well supplied, or mourn over the fact that their childhood was officially gone with the blood of those other tributes splattering on their clothes. Everything blended in her mind she couldn't recognize a single thing.

He turned to her and flash a smirk so obnoxious she had to fight the urge to slap it right out of his face.

"That, or were you scared?" he asked her.

Thank Heavens for mentors who see straight through you.

"Shut up," she chided him, turning away to hide her face for she was sure she'd been crying. "You've never had a sister up in the games, have you?"

The regret hit her as soon as the sentence finished. Of course she'd heard about him, his defiance during his Games, and the random accidents which took away his mother, girlfriend, and _little brother_ shortly after his was crowned.

Silence. There was no outburst, no snarky remark, no slap, and no punch. Whatever she'd just said must have hurt.

Someone tapped her shoulder. She didn't need to look up to be able to tell that it was Chaff, District Eleven's male mentor who was Haymitch's buddy.

"Go get some fresh air, girl," he whispered, subtly pushing her off her chair. "Don't be ashamed. You've been so brave to sit through it."

She stood up and left, for it was obvious she had no other choice. Not after she'd said such an outrageous thing to her mentor.

Her eyes burned, and her heart ached with sadness, remorse, fear, and a million other emotions, when she finally got back to her room. But she didn't dare to cry. She didn't deserve to.

* * *

**Katniss**

"Damn," Peeta swore under his breath, panting, as they rested at the bank of the mud river they'd come across. "Damn it."

"Damn it," she agreed, catching on her own breath. In the distance, the bloodbath cannon boomed. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Half of the tributes gone.

"What were you thinking about?" he asked her, turning to her with something in his eyes. She'd never seen it before, and she didn't really know how to interpret it. It could be disappointment, could be anger, could be self-loathing - but she couldn't really tell.

"I... I thought I'd better get supplies," she answered - whimpered out, more exactly. The adrenaline had worn out, and slowly, the realization and shock started catching up with her. She might have killed someone. She might have gotten killed. Peeta might have gotten killed, because of her crazy bravado. Because of her, he'd killed. He'd become a killer.

"Peeta, I..."

There was a lump in her throat, as she saw his bowed head, slumped shoulders, and that mixture of sadness, anger, and disgust in his face.

"...I'm sorry," she finally finished off, as she bowed her own head under the weight of her own sins. "I'm sorry."

"Kill me, Katniss."

Her head snapped up, and she turned to him.

"Peeta?" she asked - whimpered out to be more exact.

"Her blood. Her scream. They won't get out my head. I don't wanna live like this."

The memories of Johanna's nightmares and Haymitch's drunken sobs slowly filled her head. With the weight of her sister's sins and Peeta's and her own on her shoulders, she pulled him into her arms and held him tight; her own tears blended with his, their bodies shaking together.

"Let's get cleaned up," she said, once everything was done and the emotions were released. "We need to get going."

They scrubbed themselves with leaves and the mud-water, and divided the weapons and supplies between them. One backpack for them each, the bow and arrows for Katniss, and the knife, the damned knife, for Peeta. Together, they made their defeated, hazy way along the water, towards where the stream came from. The mud-water was definitely unsafe to drink, and there might be a cleaner source upstream.

Her eyes were on him all the time, for she was afraid he'd jump onto the river or drive his weapon - his knife - to his own chest. But no, he didn't. His head remained bowed, and his lips sealed, but with each step, there was a new resolve, a new determination.

And finally, when they'd found their new camp next to a clean water source and the light of sunset filled the sky, he lifted his head and spoke to her.

"Let's stay alive."

She turned to him and looked at him, watching her face and the sunset he'd loved so reflecting in his eyes.

"You. Me. They can't take away who we are."

In all honesty, she didn't understand his process of thoughts, at all. He might be going crazy, he might be insane. But she didn't care. He'd wanted to stay alive, agreed to stay alive. And that was what was important.

"Yeah," she said, turning back to the sunset sky in front of them. "Let's stay alive."

_Until the end_, she thought, pushing back down the lump in her throat. _Then I'll do what's right_.

(Years later, as they sat down with their biographer, she would come to know that her thought echoed his, that they'd both been thinking of the same thing. But at that point, it would no longer be relevant, for they'd done what was best for the world, which was far far away from the thing they were planning to do for each other.)

One of the backpacks contained a packet of food, insect repellent, a rope, and some matches, but the other one had a small tent enough for one person in addition to a water sanitizing kit. She let him make the tent and kept watch for both of them. She let him sleep first, though she doubt he would really be sleeping. It was only after the anthem and the display of faces in the sky had ended that she woke him up for his watch turn and tried, really hard, to sleep.

They stayed alive through the night.

* * *

**Johanna**

When she could finally muster the strength to walk back into the Viewing Room, midnight had passed and the room was already half-empty. A quick glance at One's station confirmed that the Glimmer girl was really dead. One of the screens was dark, and Queen Cashmere wasn't there. The other mentor - whom she didn't really know - threw her a look, though, so she turned away and held her head high, pretending she hadn't looked before. One by one, she spotted black screens and absent mentors. Finnick, Ash, and Caroline had all gone away. They had all lost their tributes.

It got uncomfortably depressing, so she decided to forget her sightseeing and focused on her mission.

Haymitch was in his position, in front of Twelve's screens. Asleep, or at least, pretended or tried to be.

"Feeling stellar?" Haymitch asked, opening up one eye as she plopped down next to him.

"Stellar my arse," she answered, rolling her eyes. "I feel shit."

"Then why are you here?" he asked, halfway between concerned and sneering.

"Guess I'm done running away," she answered him. "I'm never good in running away, anyway. It's more like Kit... _Katniss_'s thing."

Haymitch's screen was still on, so, definitely, Katniss was still alive. And judging the fact that her screen was, too, on, Peeta was also alive. Relief and guilt washed over her, as she realized she could have been missing their last moments. What was she thinking about, when she blew up?

"I sent Sweetheart a message, by the way," Haymitch said, closing both his eyes back. "Figure out I need to help you, even if you're terrible."

"Yes, I'm terrible," she admitted. "Sorry for saying such a retarded thing."

"You were lucky you were you," he responded, sounding harsh although she could see the ghost of a smile on his face. "I hit kids, just not the ones I babysit."

"I hope you know you're a jerk, Old Man," she replied, her own ghost of a smile on her face.

"And I think you know you're a bitch, Doll," he responded, still with the ghost of the smile.

She didn't get angry, for surely she _was_ and _did_.

"What did you tell Brainless, by the way?" she asked him.

"You'll see tomorrow," he answered, smiling - no, smirking.

* * *

**Katniss**

The morning of the second day saw a breakfast basket for two delivered to them on a silver parachute, with a message attached to it.

_'Stay alive'_

They ate the breakfast, and kept the basket and the message as a reminder that their mentors were watching them. And as a reminder that they still had the chance to live.

The day, and the next two, passed by without much things happening. They had near misses with dangerous insects and collapsing grounds and the wandering Careers, but apart from it, things were calm. There was an additional cannon on the second day - Female Eight, as they later found out - but that was it. Nine other tributes were still alive.

"Marvel," Katniss listed, as they did a recap, the midnight of their fifth day. "Cato. Clove. The boy from Three. The girl from Four. The boy from Ten. Thresh. Rue. That's eight. Who's the ninth person alive?"

Peeta frowned, deep in thought, before something hit him and he clicked his fingers.

"The girl from Five," he said, sure and firm. "Red hair. Quick. Smart."

"The one with fox face?" Katniss asked, confirming. The image of the girl started appearing in her head. She'd bumped into the elusive girl several times during training.

"Well," Peeta answered, looking both amused and conflicted at first. "Yeah. Never really caught her name, so can't really tell you who she's called. So, for now, Foxface should be fine."

"Okay," Katniss repeated, relisting the living tributes. "Marvel, Cato, Clove, boy Three, girl Four, Foxface, boy Ten, Thresh, Rue. Nine of them. Who have we seen so far?"

"The Careers," Peeta began. "Boy Ten. No sign of Foxface, Rue, or Thresh."

"Hope Rue's alright," Katniss said, thinking about the girl who was just as old as her baby sister. She could only save one person, sadly, so Peeta it was, but if she could save two, Rue would definitely be the next, for the sake of her love for Prim.

The next morning, they rose up early and decided to gather some food for their supply was depleting. Since the breakfast basket, there had been several bread shipments from Haymitch and Johanna - always fruits and nuts bread, never anything else. A reminder of hope and courage and everything good in the world, which visited Katniss in the form of Peeta Mellark, back when they were eleven. There hadn't been any shipment of other food, though, and they agreed that variety would keep them healthy.

"I'll come hunting with you," Peeta said, securing his knife on his belt as he saw her strapping her quiver around her body. "The Careers might find you."

She'd almost said 'sure', but then she remembered the bloodbath, the slashes of the knife, and his devastation afterwards.

"No," she told him instead, firmly. "I'll go hunt. You go gather fruits and plants. I'll be fine."

"Okay," he relented, after a few seconds of silence. "Let's not go too faraway from here though. That way, if anything happened, we can still help each other."

And so they set off to their respective duties. Katniss hunted, Peeta gathered. Initially, she could see him through the trees, bending and kneeling and inspecting and collecting. But then the hunt took more of her attention, and before long, he'd disappeared from her field of view, replaced by endless rows of trees.

He'll be fine, she told herself. He'll...

A loud, high pitched scream, a cannon, and all the good thoughts slipped from her mind.

She ran. She didn't know where she was actually going, but she just ran and ran. Through the trees, above the roots. She tripped. She fell. She got up. She ran again. She needed to get to him. She needed to get to him. NOW.

Whatever killed the girl who screamed might still be around.

"Peeta!" she hollered for him, "Peeta!"

No answer. With a sinking heart, she ran. And ran. And kept running. The cannon hadn't sound again. Yet. She still had hope.

"Sst."

Her Hunter's ears caught a sound.

"Sst!"

Something landed on her back, hard. She stopped and spun around, tilting her head upwards towards the source of the noise and the thing. And there, there, she saw it. She saw _her_.

Rue.

"He's there!" the younger girl hissed, pointing to a direction towards their right. "Follow me!"

She didn't know what came over her, but somehow she trusted Rue enough to take whatever the girl said as truth. So she ran along, as the kind, lively girl leapt from tree to tree, effortlessly and gracefully. And sure, there he was. Laying on the ground, writhing and moaning.

"Peeta!" she hissed, as she halted to a slide and landed softly on her knees next to him. "Peeta!"

A soft thud, and Rue was suddenly beside them.

"He's gonna be fine," the young girl assured. "Had a bit of a run in with Tracker Jackers, but he's only gotten stung a few. Most of them went there instead, for that girl from Four."

She pointed to a spot close to them, where a hovercraft was now picking up a swollen, unrecognizable body.

"The cannon?" she asked, turning briefly to the younger girl.

"Yes," Rue confirmed. "The cannon. It was her. The Careers found me on top of a tree. Boy Two snatched that spear from boy One and tried to spear me. He missed and hit that Tracker Jacker nest way below me instead."

"Where are the rest of them now?" Katniss asked, as she slid under Peeta and laid his head on her lap. He looked so miserable she'd almost cried, and she had to convince herself she trusted Rue just so that she could believe he would be fine.

"They escaped towards the lake," Rue said, pointing towards where they'd seen the dead girl. "They were all stung, so they'll all be out for days."

Katniss looked down at Peeta, then lifted her head back to the girl next to her.

"Will he be out for days?" she asked.

"He's gotten three," Rue answered, pointing at three swollen spots on Peeta's hand and neck which were, Katniss now noticed, covered with some green, mushy stuff. "I've put the leaves, so he won't take weeks, but I think he'll be out for two or three days."

Two or three days. That was what they would lose from their already short time together.

She threw her head back and looked up at the sky, wanting to scream but couldn't find her voice somehow.

* * *

**Johanna**

"Your feed for the day," Ash said cynically, placing a glass of something which looked like flavoured milk in front of her. "The last Capitol diet fad claimed this has all the nutrients, with half the calories or whatever shit they call it. Won't be surprised if it's actually just horse jizz."

She glared at him, for obviously she couldn't deal with his out-of-place humour right now. Yes, she hadn't eaten since yesterday. But he should have known why, for crying out loud. When his sister was in the Arena, two years ago, Finnick and her had to put him on drip because he wouldn't eat and drink at all.

"Have it, Doll," Haymitch commented beside her, standing up and stretching his stiff arms. "I'll go buying the kids supplies and medicines."

With that, he left her with her annoying friend, who'd been nothing but a nuisance since his own tributes died that first day.

"How's Caroline doing?" she asked, just so that he could stop being annoying.

"Not much better," Ash answered. "She's now outside with Finnick, helping him moping over Mags's girl tribute. Such drama queens, those two."

"You're such a jerk, don't you know?" she snapped at him, though her eyes didn't leave her screen even for a second.

"I'm not," he insisted, grabbing her chin to get her attention, like he did that first day. "I'm just keeping you guys sane. Stop caring so much about everything, Johanna. It's not going to help you."

He released her and walked away from her station, heading towards the Viewing Room's exit.

She slumped forward and rested her chin at the bottom of her screen, staring at the close-up of Peeta's pale, miserable face on it. Katniss's braid swayed in and out of the frame; he was on her back now, being carried back to their camp. Rue's head bobbed up and down at the bottom of the frame. She was coming back with them to the camp, having been offered an alliance by Katniss. One more person for her sister to lose in this stupid, outrageous Games.

The concoction sat there on her side table, untouched for three days or so, before she finally chucked it down the toilet bowl for it had separated into these disgusting, artificial-looking layers. Just like the rest of The Capitol.

During that time, one more tribute - boy Ten - was gone, and Katniss's little alliance had grown closer and closer. And the public was getting giddy for the final eight, which was just one tribute away.

And Katniss, her dear Kitty, had garnered even more public sympathy with her love story, the way she nursed Peeta back to health with Rue's help, carrying him on her back everywhere she went and never leaving his side unless she needed to. He kissed her when he finally woke up from the daze, and The Capitol went mad in love, clapping and cheering and squealing so loudly it even sounded overwhelming in the news recording.

That third day, she received a sponsor's phone call from a Capitol mother with teenaged kids, asking her to send Katniss whatever favourite food the middle Everdeen had, at any price. She gave it a bit of thought, before jumping on and requesting the one food she knew her sister loved: Capitol-style Lamb Stew.

The gift arrived at Katniss's camp just in time for dinner. The look on Katniss's face when she opened the package was priceless.

She had to tear her gaze away from the screen, as it showed her sister throwing her head back and said, into the evening sky.

_"Thank you, Haymitch. Thank you, Joey."_

Her resolve came back a minute or two afterwards, and she turned back, watching the three tributes sharing a meal and stories about growing up. Her heart ached for Rue, as the girl told stories about her five younger siblings. The girl was a big sister as well, just like her. It ached again for Peeta, as he told stories about his annoying yet endearing older brothers, and their adventures in the kitchen of their bakery.

And it ached for herself, as Katniss began telling their stories, of how they used to argue and fight like boys when they were little, of how they'd always called each other names, of how they would get each other into and out of trouble, of how they were both goners when it came to Prim, giving in to whatever the little girl wanted.

_"I have the best sisters in the world,"_ she heard Katniss's voice through the speakers, as she watched her sister reminiscing and smiling. _"I never regret loving them."_

She watched Rue lifting her gaze up to the stars, as if wishing over something.

_"I forgot to tell my sister I love her,"_ the girl finally said with a sad smile. _"I hope she knows that."_

_"She does,"_ Katniss responded, smiling a similar smile back. _"You would absolutely know when your sister loves you."_

And the Mentors' Viewing Room fell silent as her little sister said that one sentence.

_You would absolutely know when your sister loves you._

"Go and get some sleep, Doll," Haymitch helped her, shoving her away from their viewing station. "You've been awake for too long."

She nodded quietly and made her way out. Behind her, Finnick followed closely, as if guarding her from something. Johanna barely acknowledged him. She was too busy with her memories.

Kitty. The mewling baby in her Ma's arms. Kitty. The toddler running after her in the meadow. Kitty. The little girl holding her hand on the way to school. Kitty. The wide-eyed girl walking between her and their Pa in the woods. Kitty. The sad, quiet girl counting their last coins next to her on their kitchen table. Kitty. The little archer hunting next to her. Kitty. The determined girl who demanded her to come back from her Games. Kitty. The teenager who raised Prim and looked at her sadly. Kitty. The young lady whose hair she caressed at night as they slept side by side.

And today, Johanna was just a girl.

She cried in Finnick's arms, in the corridor in front of the Viewing Room.

"Ssh, Jo-Jo," Finnick whispered, as he pulled her tight onto his body. "Don't cry. We're getting Katniss and her boy out of there. I promise."

"How?" she wailed to him. "How?"

Finnick inhaled deeply.

"Ash helped me the year Annie was in," he quietly said, after a quick look around for bugging microphones. "And we helped Ash the year Caroline was in. I'll grab Caroline and Ash now."

Johanna looked up at her best friend with teary eyes.

"Finn," she croaked. "What are you going to do?"

Finnick looked up at the ceiling and took another deep breath.

"The gamemakers surely like their party," he said, exhaling.

* * *

Johanna didn't go to sleep as Haymitch told her to. Instead, she went with Finnick, Ash, and Caroline to a hotel suite, where Finnick had gathered all the gamemakers.

It was a pretty tame party compared to the last one she was in, but it was still devastating. Afterwards, the four Victors made their quiet way back to their rooms, unable to look at each other in the eyes.

"That wasn't too bad, really," Caroline commented, as they rode the lift back to their level in the control building. "At least they were very considerate."

Johanna must admit that there was some truth behind the sentence. But, still, in the ideal world, all they had to do was asking. Not all those other things those gamemakers made them do.

"Let's not mention this to the others," Finnick warned them, as their lift stopped on their floor. "We don't want to get upped."

Johanna nodded and slipped past her best friend to make her way to her room. She needed to take a shower, to wash off the traces of their dirty play before she could go back to the Viewing Room. She couldn't bear to disappoint Haymitch.

The television was on when she stepped into her room. Frowning, she reached for the remote control to turn it off. She didn't leave it on when she left the previous day.

"Leave it on," Haymitch's voice said behind her. "We need to keep track of what is happening."

Johanna put the remote control down and turned around. The look on her mentor's face told her that he'd figured out what she'd done.

"What happened when I was out?" she asked, looking away to hide her guilt.

"Don't you kid me, Doll. You know the answer," her mentor answered, a strange mixture of pride and disappointment in his voice.

Johanna stare out of the window, at the morning sun gleaming above Capitol.

"Have they announced it yet?" she asked.

"No, not yet," Haymitch responded. "Plutarch said they were waiting for the Final Eight."

"And how far away could that be?" Johanna asked again.

"One hour, one day, one week - no one can tell," Haymitch answered, taking a swig from his flask. "At this rate, all nine of them are still going strong."

Not a second after he finished his sentence, the speakers boomed a girlish, little voice calling out her sister's name.

"Katniss!"

Johanna and Haymitch turned their heads quickly towards the screen, and saw their tributes' little ally, Rue, bleeding in Katniss's arms, and a livid Peeta pulling out an arrow from the body of the boy from One nearby.

* * *

**Katniss**

Her arms were full, but her heart was empty.

She put down the little body on the forest floor, choking on her own tears as Peeta helped her up. In death, Rue looked peaceful. And young, as young as her twelve years.

"Flowers," Katniss croaked, tilting her head to look at Peeta. "Get some flowers."

He nodded and squeezed her in a quick hug before setting off.

Katniss blinked her tears and started working on picking wild flowers herself, her brain numb from grief and realization. Rue was only Prim's age. And albeit the physical and size differences, they were so alike. So happy and full of life.

A life which was no more, taken away too fast when that boy from One trapped her in a net and threw a spear on her.

She didn't know she was again crying, until she started arranging the flowers around Rue's body. She opened her mouth to sing The Meadow Song again, only to find no sound was coming.

Next to her, Peeta began to arrange flowers as well, mixing colours and shapes in a beautiful, artistic way. They worked in silence until they were done, and left with their three-finger salutes. Soon, the Hovercraft would come to pick Rue's body up and carried her out of the Arena, to the world she'd belonged.

Around them, the mockingjays Rue had pointed out the first day the spent as allies sung their four-tunes signal. Katniss's heart wrenched again. Rue had improvised that signal.

"They will stop," Peeta reassured her quietly. "We'll be fine."

Katniss nodded as she sank onto a fallen tree trunk. Peeta plopped down next to her, and together they stare at the man-made sky above them. All of them - seven of them, counting exactly - were under the mercy of the gamemakers. Who knew what would come for them next.

_'Attention all tributes. There has been a slight change of rule for the 74th Hunger Games. We are now allowing two tributes from the same district to be crowned Victors, if they are the last two to survive.'_

Katniss didn't know what made her happier: the announcement, or Peeta's bright eyes and wide smile that she hadn't seen since they entered the Arena.

Or, that one new, liberating knowledge, that she could both save the boy she loved and come back home to the sisters she too loved.

* * *

The next few days saw them playing a messed up game of hide and seek with Cato and Clove from District Two.

With very few tributes to hunt and the new rule in place, the duo from Two had very few target options. And with the animosity between them, it was only natural that it was Katniss and Peeta they went after. It didn't matter that there were Thresh from Eleven, the boy from Three, and the girl from Five - Foxface - , Cato and Clove only wanted Katniss and Peeta.

"I don't really want to keep running," Katniss complained, after three consecutive days of hiding and running. "They're not doing us good."

"The other choice is to kill them, Katniss," Peeta responded, tilting his head to look at her. "I assume you would rather not."

"I'd rather not," Katniss confirmed, looking up at the darkening sky above them. "If only it's possible to get them to stop."

Peeta chuckled at her remark.

"They're hell-bent to get us, so maybe not," he said. "We just have to keep running, until they're too tired to go after us."

"Or we get too tired," Katniss responded warily. She stood up and kicked on a rock. Fatigue and hunger had started getting into her head. Sponsorship items had become less frequent and resources more scarce they had very little to eat these days. "We have to..."

A loud bang and a cannon interrupted her. There were only six of them now.

"Who do you think it is?" she asked Peeta.

"Can be anyone, really," he answered. "It sounded like a trap."

"We'll find out in a few hours, I guess," Katniss gave the game up. "Let's find somewhere to sleep."

They walked a bit more and found a secluded cave. It didn't have much, but with the looming rain above them, it was the best place to be. They lit a fire and huddled around it, their destroyed tribute jackets laid on the ground as picnic sheets. It had been two weeks since they entered the arena, two weeks since the world was a place where they could trust. Katniss found herself hanging on a thread of sanity, and on the boy next to her. In two weeks, they'd known each other much more than they had before. Each other's pain and fears, strength and weaknesses, dreams and secrets.

_I am gonna marry this boy,_ she told herself, as she watched him drifting to a sleep. It was a ridiculous thought to entertain and the world was so uncertain Katniss didn't know how she would make it real. But somehow she was sure as hell it was going to happen and thus she slept with a smile on her face.

She woke up to the Capitol anthem and had a peek outside to figure out who was gone. It was the boy from Three, who'd been guarding Cato's and Clove's stash of food at the Cornucopia.

"Who?" Peeta asked her, half awake.

"Boy Three," she answered, crawling back to their spot. "Most probably District Two. I don't think Foxface and Thresh would kill him."

Peeta mumbled something and fell back to sleep. Curling up next to him, Katniss joined him in dreamland - or more exactly, nightmare land.

The next thing which woke her up was Peeta's coughs and shaking.

"Peeta?" she mumbled.

There was some soft moans and grunts, but no real answer.

"Peeta?" she retried, shooting up in awareness.

There was still no answer.

The fire was still on. It illuminated his face, and revealed to her how miserable he looked. Suddenly, she was reminded of that scary fever Prim had contracted as an eight year old. Prim, too, had been coughing and shaking.

Katniss placed the back of her hand on his forehead to figure out his temperature. Her heart fell when she realized he was running one. He was sick.

The sun was slowly rising outside, and soon, the next day of the Games would start. Cato and Clove would be hot on their heels again. A sick Peeta would be an easy target.

She had to heal him. Her knowledge of this thing might have been four years old, but she had to try.

* * *

**Johanna**

She muttered curses under her breath and headed off to the sponsorship station with all of their remaining sponsorship tokens.

"Send Male Twelve the cure of whatever he's having," she told the man. "Take all of these."

"Sorry, Miss Everdeen, but we aren't allowed to send medicines anymore," the man answer with a flat, bored tone. "We're having a feast soon."

Johanna muttered more curses and grabbed all the tokens. She headed back to her screen and continued her watch, her heart burning in anger of the cruel play happening in the Arena.

They were getting Katniss to face Clove. She bet there were already some bets going around about the winner.

"Old Man," she flagged Haymitch down, as he re-entered the room. "Boy's sick and feast's coming soon."

Haymitch's steps got faster. Johanna's heart fell again. The fact that her mentor was panicking told her they were unprepared for this.

"How are the others going?" he asked, his voice said 'business'.

"Male Two had a run in with Tracker Jackers - _again_ - and is now on the ground thinking something is eating him alive. Female Two's pissed as, but otherwise alright. Male Eleven's a bit wonky, but still dangerous from what I can see. Female Five's going crazy with hunger, she looks like she's going to eat anything in sight."

"They would all be there," he told her, scanning around the room for other mentors. "Tell your little gang to come here. Bet they wouldn't want to miss it."

She jumped to her feet and set out to find her friends. Caroline was out, but the boys had both come back from their assignments and were playing a sloppy game of pool. She dragged them back into the Viewing Room. They walked in right when the big screen showed four backpacks on the feast table.

"What's she doing?" Johanna demanded Haymitch, as she saw Katniss running through an open trail.

"Copying her big sister and not thinking things through," her mentor answered wearily, glancing at her before going back to her sister on the screen. "Seems like she's not always the sensible one, after all."

Johanna sank back to her seat. She didn't have time to argue with Haymitch right now. If this was going to be her sister's last moments, she had to watch it. It was her punishment for failing to protect Katniss.

Stop thinking about that, Johanna, she scolded herself, as she felt the boys' sympathetic eyes on her. They had both been where she was now.

Finnick had two hands on her shoulders as they all watched Katniss snatching Twelve's pack from the table and running off, straight to Clove. He gripped her firmly as they watch the girls' catfight and heard Clove insulting Johanna and the entire Everdeen family. They all held their breaths as Clove produced a knife and started taunting Katniss about the girl from Eleven, and as Male Eleven came out of nowhere and killed Clove.

"Lucky your sister's nice," Ash commented, after Male Eleven let Katniss go and helped her distracting Cato.

"You should shut up, but you're right," Johanna replied, acknowledging the truth behind her friend's remark. If it wasn't for that beautiful friendship with the girl from Eleven, Katniss would have been dead by now.

With most of the other mentors, Johanna watched the events of the next few days panning out. They saw Katniss and a much better looking Peeta foraging around together. They saw Peeta picking up some poisonous nightlocks by accident, and Female Five stealing the said berry. They watched Female Five dying instantly from the berries, and that brief moment of panic Katniss had when she heard the cannon. They watched Cato, the boy from Two, getting up and finding Male Eleven, killing the larger boy with a chilling ease.

And suddenly it was all Cato versus Katniss and Peeta versus the Gamemakers.

"What would it be this time?" Johanna asked her friends for opinion.

Caroline shook her head and Ash shrugged, but Finnick frowned in thought.

"I'd say mutts," he finally said. "They repeat every three years or so."

And surely, he was right. They could again only watch as wolf mutts came in and started hunting the three tributes, cornering them at the Cornucopia.

Everything from then on happened too fast for Johanna. Before she knew, the three tributes were up on top of the Cornucopia. She bit her lips when Cato grabbed and pinned Katniss under his knees against the Cornucopia roof.

"I'll kill your girlfriend, Twelve," the speakers echoed the cruel hulk's voice. "Then I'll break all your bones and feed them to the dogs."

Peeta just looked on calmly. Fear crept in Johanna's heart, as she realized that this was one of those rare moments when she couldn't read her mentee.

"Go on," the speakers sounded again, echoing Peeta's voice this time. "If that makes you happy, if you can live with it afterwards, go on."

Johanna cradled her head in her hands. Moral was never a lesson they taught at District Two Career school. Peeta was beating around the bush for nothing.

But then Peeta's eyes caught Katniss's, and the look on it betrayed the calmness. For the first time in the entire Games, Johanna saw a blazing fire in it. The boy was on fire.

The next moment was a defining one for the Games. With a movement only a trained Career could usually pull, Katniss grabbed Cato's leg which was on her, twisting it hard it popped out of its socket. The hulk screamed and fell down the Cornucopia, right onto where the Mutts were. It wasn't what killed him, though. He must have been in such pain, or shock, that he forgot to fold himself into a safe position when he fell, and hit the ground face-first, neck snapping above it. The horrific snap was soon followed by a cannon, and the boy from Two was no more.

Johanna felt a rush of happiness and guilt, as she watched her sister and her mentee embracing each other. Both of them had made it to victory. They had both killed and watched others getting killed. They would live with the nightmares, just like her and the other Victors, but they would live. She hadn't failed any of them.

But then there were no hovercrafts and no Victors announcement. With a quick sideways look at Finnick, Johanna knew something didn't quite go well.

_'Tributes, there had been a slight change of rules. We have reversed our previous change. There could only be one Victor for the 74th Hunger Games.'_

* * *

**Katniss**

She wished they hadn't done this whole cruel trick. Things would have been much easier without the false hope, much less crushing. Had she known about this, she'd have taken Cato down to the wolves with her. It would have been quicker, and less painful. For her, and for the boy she loved.

"Peeta," she quietly whispered to him. "Go. I won't take long, I promise. Tell my sisters I love them."

"No," Peeta whispered back. He tightened his arms around her. "Stay with me."

A lump formed in Katniss's throat, as she took a deep breath and said, "always."

She didn't know whether it was something she could fulfill, whether hell wouldn't open its gate for her the moment her life ended, or whether there was really some kind of life after death. But she would do everything in her power to make it happen, and so she promised.

Her hand found several round little things in his jacket's pocket as she moved her hand up to caress his face. The nightlocks. They'd kept the berries to lure Cato, but didn't get to use them.

And suddenly she knew how to stay with him, _always_.

"We forgot these," she said as she pulled the berries out of his pocket. "They don't have to have a Victor, right?"

Grey met blue in the light of dawn, and they knew they both wanted it.

He leaned down to kiss her, and she kissed him back. The world was perfect with him in it, and so would hell or nothingness, to her. Her heart ached for Johanna and Prim as they broke apart. Prim, the little girl who'd wanted for nothing but for both her big sisters to come home. Johanna, the big sister who'd done everything and anything to protect her, right since she was born. But she knew her sisters - at least her big sister - would understand. Love was something they shared.

She divvy up the nightlocks between her and Peeta, and looked into his eyes.

"On three," she said, "one, two,..."

_"Ladies and gentlemen! The Victors of the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark of District Twelve!"_

_**To be continued...**_

* * *

Thanks for reading everyone! Hope you enjoyed that. I'll see you on Thursday (or Wednesday, if you are half a world away from where I am :)), with the next chapter which marks the start of the Catching Fire part of the story. There, we'll visit how the rebellion plan was conceived, as well as bring together two characters who love each other but due to all complications weren't together (hint: my OTP). Have a good start of the week, and till then! :)


	13. Chapter 14: The Torment

**AN:** Hello all! Thanks for reading. Special thanks for Ellie82, jc52185, Reviewer08, Norbert's Mom (twice, each for ch 12 and ch 13 :)), and axes tridents and snares for their reviews. Your reviews really made my day (or days :)).

Okay, so we've gotten to Catching Fire now. Compared to the two other parts (The Hunger Games, which we finished, and Mockingjay, which we haven't started yet), this part perhaps has a little less action (especially in the beginning) and more drama/romance/friendship. When I drafted the story I my head, I always imagined this part to be the one in which I begin the resolution of the Johanna/Gale/Madge triangle and set the stage for the rebellion - which will turn out differently at the end.

Now, I have to break the bad news to Gadge (Gale/Madge) fans: this story will not end with Gadge. I think Madge definitely has lots of potential as a character, and I like her when developed well. But Johale (Johanna/Gale) is always my OTP, and I find it hard to write otherwise. The love triangle will be solved pretty amicably, though, and without bashing Madge or depicting her as an unlikeable person, so if you like her as a character, don't worry. And I do have another boy in mind for her ;).

**Disclaimer:** THG trilogy, its settings, and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm only borrowing them to tell a story. There are some in this story, which belong to me. This chapter doesn't contain any of them, though.

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen: The Torment**

**Johanna**

She didn't get any warnings or words from Snow. The president had pretty much left her alone.

He'd also left Katniss and Peeta alone, to Johanna's delight and secret paranoia. He was there presenting the crowns in the ceremony, but he'd left as soon as it ended. Her tributes - no, Victors - were returned to Haymitch and her as soon as they changed back into their normal outfits. Finnick told Johanna that the two kids were not to join the Pleasure Squad. The Capitol was enamoured with the idea of them together, and would not in a million years buy any of them even if they'd been on offer.

Johanna found that to be a bittersweet victory. She couldn't deny she was bitter and jealous that they were spared the hell. On the other hand, to have both of them alive and still in love and free to be with each other was a sweet blessing, after all they'd been through since the Reaping. She tried not to think too much about it, not to choose between her human side and her protective side. The more she spent dwelling on this, the more it hurt her.

The train ride home was entertaining, with the constant loving interactions between her little sister and the mentee who was as good to Johanna as a little brother. Sleeping arrangement was amusing, with the two having constant nightmares they ended up in Johanna's compartment: Katniss on the bed and Peeta on the floor next to her. Haymitch told Johanna to get lost when she asked him to join them for the sake of it, to her delight and relieve. She had no idea how to fit one extra person and one extra set of nightmares into her compartment.

Right now, things felt like a happy ending. Two Victors, no casket. Gifts and new houses, smiles from the crowd. But Johanna knew Capitol had always won, and this was all tentative.

To say that she was relieved to see her mother and Prim at the station when they arrived was an understatement. She almost sank to the ground from the overwhelming emotion. If Snow was to do something to destroy her and Katniss, it would be killing the person for whom they gave their all: their baby sister.

She didn't know how long she and her sisters stayed in that hug when they finally got to each other. They were still huddling when they finally made their way to their current Victor's Village house. President Snow only gave one house for Katniss and Peeta this year, and it had been agreed that Peeta would use the house. After all, Katniss didn't really need a new, separate house.

It was only when they were back in what was now their shared bedroom, unpacking the suitcases full of their new outfits, that the splitting conflict caught up with Johanna.

"Here we are," she said to Katniss, as she threw herself on the bed they'd shared before Katniss's Games. "Still alive. After all those stunts you pulled."

Katniss spun around and threw a fiery glare at her. Johanna smirked. She'd seen that coming.

"I did what I think was right," the younger girl answered harshly. "And it was right. I thought you would have done the same if you were me."

"Do what?" Johanna asked, looking lazily at her sister. "Wasting all your sister's efforts on a boy? Offering to kill yourself for love?"

Katniss looked away.

"Your boyfriend grew on me, though," Johanna continued, deciding not to hold the game for too long. "So, you were actually doing me a favour getting him out alive."

"Thought you were gonna let him die," Katniss responded coldly.

"Thanks for having such a high opinion on me," Johanna replied with equal coldness.

They continued unpacking in silence, as the tension amounted between them. Eventually, Katniss walked up to Johanna and looked at her sister in the eyes.

"You should have just said no," the new Victor said, her gray eyes burning with anger. "I would happily die for you, instead of watching you walking dead like this."

Johanna rolled her eyes.

"Brainless," she said, after a few seconds of silence. "If you die because of me, then I'd be closer to dead than I am now."

"We could have run off to the woods," Katniss responded, the fire in her eyes intensifying. "Pretend we're dead or something. It would be much better than this."

The younger girl threw a disgusted glance around the room, as if it was a filthy jail cell.

"Go tell Gale what happened to you," Johanna heard her sister saying, a few seconds later. "He might be what you need to be alive again."

Johanna chuckled bitterly.

"Yes, yes," she said, shaking her head. "Love heals everything. I know you're in love, Brainless, and I'm happy for you. But I'm done and dusted. You have no idea what it feels like, and you'll never do in my lifetime. Now, if you could just go basking in your young love, I just want to get back those hours of sleep you took."

Katniss threw her one last scowl before storming off. To Peeta's, most likely.

Johanna laughed emptily and finished their unpacking job mechanically. She didn't know what she was anymore. She didn't even realize she was sobbing until Prim barged in, concerned over her wellbeing.

Looked like she was still human, after all.

* * *

Katniss didn't come back for the night. One look at Peeta's window confirmed where she was, though, so Johanna just went to bed without thinking too much about it.

When the middle Everdeen climbed back in the next day, all the animosity was forgotten - somehow - and they were sisters again. They went swimming at the lake and talked their nightmares and thoughts through. They walked around the district and visited places they'd been when they were little, including The Hob and Greasy Sae's. They walked Prim to school between them, just like what they'd done those days before Johanna's games.

The angst Johanna felt eventually just went away with the wind. Perhaps because she chose not to care anymore, not to think about it anymore. Or perhaps because she'd let it all out and let Katniss share her burdens.

Life was somewhat normal again. Or almost, for normal life didn't include nightmares and flashbacks.

Like Johanna, Katniss decided not to come back to school after the Games. And so did Peeta. They didn't need more education in coal mining. They would never go down there to the mines.

The Careers of District Twelve were still friends, and if anything, were stronger than ever. Johanna still trained Prim, Delly, and Madge, just in case. Gale and Wheaton were both no longer eligible for next year's reaping, so they'd brought in Gale's brother Rory and Delly's little brother. The older boys went down to the mines, as soon as they turned nineteen. Wheaton's decision caused a rift in the Mellark family, and he had to leave their bakery to live with his little brother Peeta, but something had truly snapped in him when Peeta got reaped. Wheaton Mellark was now as strong in character as he was in build.

Johanna didn't really see Gale these days. He spent most his time in the mines or hunting, and when he wasn't doing any of those, hanging around Wheaton and another young miner Thom. Peeta often went with them, but they'd never asked any of the girls to come. It was a secret boys' club of some sort - or some secret Order.

Gale still hadn't asked Madge out, to Johanna's annoyance, delight, and intrigue. They were still close, but it looked like they weren't going to go much further.

"I don't have time for romance," he reasoned, when Johanna confronted him about it one rare days they hung out. "Maybe later."

"Later after she's reaped?" Johanna sneered.

Gale refused to meet her in the eyes.

"If she becomes a Victor, I hope she won't be the heartless jerk you are."

Looked like he was still in the dark regarding victory and its price.

While Gale and Madge stalled on close friendship stage, Katniss and Peeta had definitely progressed further. They spent almost every day together, and at least once a week, Johanna would wave at Katniss while the younger girl walked out of the door to spend the night at Peeta's. Their mother still thought the middle girl was too young, but the woman didn't stand a chance against Johanna and Katniss, and thus there was no open objection against what Katniss and Peeta had.

Johanna didn't tell a single soul, but she'd secretly applied for her and Katniss to have Prim's primary guardianship. They were soon approved to have it since Victors were considered 'adults'. She celebrated it on her own with a bottle of white liquor, in their old Seam house she'd bought permanently with her victory money. Katniss and Gale found her sleeping half naked in the meadow the next morning, and she became the district's talk for the next two weeks, but it still felt like a real victory to her. Her sisters were finally in capable hands. She finally had the two girls she would do everything for.

(Later, she would realize it was petty and that her mother would too do everything for her sisters and Johanna herself, but at that stage she was too mad at the woman to realize it.)

Her next main conquest was to help Katniss developing her talent for the Victory Tour. Peeta had already chosen painting and was doing really well, but Katniss was really hesitant to use her singing talent. After blazing arguments about it, Johanna relented to letting Katniss use clothes designing as talent. It turned out to be more faked than Johanna's fashion styling talent she'd used in her tour, but with Cinna's help, everything was sorted.

Life was good. For the time being.

* * *

The happy bubble they were sheathed in only bursted on the Sunday two weeks before Katniss and Peeta's Victory Tour.

Johanna was having a quiet morning at the lounge room when the front door bursted open and a fuming, seething Katniss barged in with an empty game bag.

"Not even a hi for your sister?" she quipped, as the younger girl walked past her.

"Your ex - or whatever - is really annoying today," Katniss responded, heading straight up the stairs.

Johanna threw the television remote control to the couch and ran after her little sister in curiosity of whatever Gale gossip Katniss had. She found Katniss sprawling on her stomach on their bed, head tilted towards the window.

"Did Gorgeous kiss you?" she playfully asked.

"What kiss," Katniss answered, sulking. "He took the boys out for a hunt and told me to go home."

"Another big secret stuff?" Johanna dug out.

"Yeah," Katniss responded, turning to face Johanna. "I don't know why they're doing this to us."

"Ego," Johanna said firmly, smirking. "Men are all pigs, Kitty Kat. Pigs in shining armours yearning for princesses to save."

Katniss chuckled, though Johanna could still see the tension in her sister's back.

"Are you a princess, Johanna?" the younger girl asked.

"Hell yeah," Johanna answered, smirking. "A kick-ass Princess. Let's show Gale freaking Hawthorne who's the damned boss."

And so they headed off to the frozen winter woods with the game bag and hunted. Nothing was really around, so they didn't have any other kill than a wild turkey, but still they had so much fun. They were still laughing like disgraceful maniacs when they made their way back to Victor's Village through the Seam.

"Hey Gale!" Johanna shouted, as they stood outside the Hawthornes' house. "We have stuff for you!"

The door flung open five seconds afterwards, and a bewildered Gale stood before them.

"What are you doing here?" he asked them, his eyes darting from Katniss to Johanna, and to the bulging game bag. They widened as he realized what the two girls had just done.

"Fuck," he muttered, snatching the bag from Katniss's hands. "Go. Now. I'll take care of this."

The door slammed before them. Shrugging at each other, the two Victor sisters started making their way back home. They weren't even halfway out of the Seam, when they saw a group of Peacekeepers, led by an unfamiliar man, exiting a house.

"Good afternoon, Miss Everdeen and Miss Everdeen," the man greeted them, flashing a creepy smile. "Nice seeing you here. I'm Romulus Thread, your new Head Peacekeeper. Visiting a friend, I assume?"

"Yes," Johanna covered for them, putting her best attempt of a straight face. "We're just going home now."

"Better make your way soon, Ladies," the man responded, glancing around at the shabby houses. "This place's full of criminals."

Johanna pulled Katniss away, before anything bad broke off. Something told her they had to get out.

"What do you think that was all about?" Katniss asked, as they closed their bedroom door behind them.

"Some raid, I guess," Johanna answered, glancing outside the window. "They do that in Capitol Clubs for some kind of stupid drug forbidden for underaged citizens."

"What can they be looking for?" Katniss asked again. "There's nothing you can get at The Seam!"

_Nothing you can get._

_Hence you steal from the Capitol._

Johanna's ears rang, as she realized what they'd just done.

"Idiot!" she berated herself. Wasting no time, she pushed past Katniss and slid down the stairs, bolting back out of their house.

"Jo!" Katniss shouted behind her. There was fear in the younger girl's voice, and Johanna knew Katniss had also realized what was happening. "Wait!"

"No time, Brainless!" she shouted back. "Gale..."

A loud whipping noise from the Town Square interrupted her sentence.

"The square!" Johanna hollered, pivoting to the source of the noise. Her heart raced so fast she felt every hectic beat in her ears. What had she just done? Who was there, bearing the brunt of her stupidity?

There was quite a big crowd at the square, though judging the number it wasn't a mandatory viewing thing. At her height, Johanna couldn't really see past the crowd, so she still couldn't see who it was. As she sneaked through, though, she could hear the whisperings.

"... hanging around with the Everdeen girls..."

"... poor mother has no husband and three younger brats..."

"... thirty lashes already, he's gonna die..."

And she knew for sure it was Gale. Even before she got to the front and saw him tied up on the post, unconscious and bloody.

Her brain only took half of a second to decide what to do. Before she even fully realized what she was doing, she'd felt the sheer force of the lash on her own back.

"Stop!" her middle sister's voice pleaded. "Please stop!"

Another loud whip, and Katniss yelp rang in Johanna's ears. She turned her head and saw Katniss between her and Thread, cradling a bloodied arm. The whip had torn through the fabric of Katniss's sleeve.

"This is not your business, girls," the head peacekeeper said, his voice low and dangerous. "This man stole from Capitol's land. The law said he should be punished."

Johanna spun and opened her mouth. She was saved from her own loose tongue, though, by Haymitch and Peeta who'd come forward with Wheaton close in tow.

"What is this all about?" Haymitch demanded. The look on his face reminded Johanna of that look her Pa had when a bunch of stupid merchant kids pelted her and Katniss with stones when they were little.

"These girls are obstructing the punishment of a convicted criminal," Thread answered, sneering. "I suggest you get them out of here, Mr. Abernathy. The law states that Victors are not exempted from it."

"He is their close friend, Peacekeeper Thread," Peeta said, looking calmly but firmly at the man. "And I heard he found the animal inside the district fencing. It's a theft but not a trespass. I believe the first offense doesn't warrant death."

"I'm surprised you haven't yet noticed the sheer intelligence of those creatures," Haymitch added, glaring at the turkey hanging from the post. "Walking in and out of the district boundaries, as if they don't know they belong to the Capitol."

Behind Wheaton, a bigger group started appearing. Delly, Thom, and the other miners.

"I believe the required punishment have been delivered, Sir," a woman from the crowd helped, her eyes met Johanna's for a bit.

Thread looked pissed, but it was clear that the crowd was against him. Even the biggest of tools would be able to smell the immediate danger.

"Alright!" he snapped, wiping the blood on the whip on his shirt. "This should serve as a warning for the whole district. Second offense is punishable by death."

Johanna didn't pay attention to him at all afterwards. Her eyes and mind were on Gale. They freed him from his ties and carried him to her Victor's Village home on a board which was suddenly just there. Haymitch, the Mellark boys, and Thom had the makeshift stretcher. Delly helped her and Katniss walking next to it. She tried hard not to cry, as her eyes traced each cut on his mangled back. Her own skin burned beneath her thick coat and shirt. Even through the layers, the one lash she received still hurt. She could only imagine the pain he was in. Because of her. Ever since her Games, all she could do was destroying him.

"God," she whimpered, looking up at the winter sky above her. "What have I done?"

Really, what had she done to deserve the reaping and everything else?

And what had she done to Gale?

"Joey," Katniss pleaded next to her, "come on."

Johanna gritted her teeth and dragged herself back home with Delly and Katniss.

Her mother set off to do the work as soon as Gale was brought in to the kitchen. Prim helped, and Johanna found herself standing on the kitchen door, staring at the scene. Katniss stood just behind her, sobbing in Peeta's arms. Herself and Katniss, they'd both failed Gale. They'd made their own bed, but failed to lay on it.

"Girls," their Ma called, once the whole thing with Gale was done. "Let me tend to you."

"I'm fine, Ma," Johanna refused. Her speech caught a bit as she realized it was the first time in years she'd addressed her mother directly. "I'll just go clean myself."

She left for her room before anyone could argue with her. There, she stripped off her clothes and stood in front of the mirror to see her back. There was nothing but a long red welt across it and a few bruising points. She'd gotten off too easily with the theft.

"Well done, Whore," she chided herself. She strode to the bathroom and turned on the shower. The water stung her skin, but she didn't care. She felt numb.

When she was done, she put on a clean set of clothes and put her dirty laundry in the wash. Gale's blood stared at her accusingly as she balled her coat and threw it into the washing machine, not caring whether she'd destroy it. The blood needed to go. She didn't need a reminder of her sin, she'd forever live with it.

Everyone was gone when she came back downstairs. There were only her mother, Prim, and Haymitch in the lounge room, and Katniss and Peeta in the kitchen. Her middle sister looked like a mess. Johanna knew the guilt too well to comment, so she just sent her sister upstairs to rest with Peeta. The gash on Katniss's arm was yet another reminder to her what her arrogance had done to the people she loved. If it wasn't for her brilliant idea earlier, none of these would have happened.

"Hey," she said, as she took her spot on the chair next to Gale's head. "I'm sorry. My fault."

There was no answer, only grunts. He was still unconscious.

She took his hand and kneaded it, for a reason she didn't understand. She just needed to. She wanted to.

A knock on the front door, a hushed exchange, and her mother was back in the kitchen with a box of things. Johanna snorted as the woman pulled out a vial from it. She'd seen the thing before.

"Who's our local junkie?" she asked.

"That was Madge," her mother explained, opening her cabinet to get a syringe. "This is her mother's medicine. Been having headaches since her twin died in the 50th Games."

"Never realized the princess's Maysilee Donner's niece," Johanna commented.

"They were my best friends," the woman responded. "The Donner twins."

"And you let the remaining one use _Morphling_?" Johanna asked in disbelief.

"We haven't spoken since Maysilee," the woman answered flatly. "She got depressed. I met your father and was cut out from the town."

Johanna rolled her eyes, but she just sealed her lips as her mother injected Gale with the thing. Madge Undersee had once more fixed the damage she'd done on him. There was no way in the world for her to deserve him now. If he lived through this, Johanna should just forget him and let Miss Undersee have him.

And yet the egotistical beast in her refused to give up. She kicked off her chair and ran off to the lounge. She only lasted two seconds before she sank to the floor and curled up on herself, letting out all the tears she'd held up in her chest for the last three and a half year. She loved him. She wanted to be with him. Yet with every day, it seemed further and further away. She had been ruined, a public property. He belonged with Madge Undersee.

A pair of arms enveloped her in a hug. Her mother. The woman rocked her like a small child. She didn't know when she last let this happen. Perhaps when she was six, before Prim was born.

"He'll be fine," the woman said, stroking her shoulder-length hair. "He's young and strong."

Johanna wanted to respond, but her own sobs choked her.

"I know you love him," her mother continued. "You should just tell him what happened. If he loves you, he won't mind."

"Undersee," Johanna choked out. "Undersee."

The woman exhaled.

"I was once in a love triangle," she said in a reminiscing voice. "There was your father, and there was the boy who is now the baker. It was my decision at the end. Not theirs. You don't have to hold back, My Girl. He'll choose whomever he can't live without."

(Years later, Johanna would end up relaying these words of wisdom to her nephew. But right now, she just wasn't quite willing to believe it. It wouldn't be until a couple if years later that she realized how much blow her self esteem had taken that day when Snow sold her innocence to the highest bidder.)

She took a few minutes to compose herself, and went back to the kitchen to continue her vigil. Gale looked peaceful with the Morphling in his system. She took the sight in, pumping the punishment into every nook of her being, convincing her bruised heart that she wasn't what he needed.

Yet her loose tongue betrayed her again.

"I've never stopped loving you," she heard herself whispering. "Even when I told you to stay away, even when I just walked past you like you were nothing. I know I shouldn't, but I couldn't help it. I can't help it."

She bent down and pressed her lips on his. He felt exactly like that first kiss she'd always remembered. She pulled away as it registered to her how dirty her lips were, all those Capitol men and everything, but she could see the subtle change in his pale face. It was as if he was smiling and blushing a bit.

And so she did that on and on, throughout the days she stayed by his side. Sometimes Katniss would sit there instead, when she needed to rest or run errands, but whenever she was there, she'd always kissed him. It felt more and more wrong as he started being more awake, but it made her happy. She felt pure and complete whenever she did that. Pain was all but memory.

* * *

Madge Undersee was nowhere to be seen, the whole time. They had more gifts of Morphling and nice food, though, so it could be assured the girl hadn't forgotten anything.

And that was why Johanna found herself at the doorstep of mayor's house, the day before the start of the Tour.

"Hey Johanna," the girl herself answered the door. Johanna knew she'd been watching from an upstairs window. Why else would she answered the door? She had some paid people to do things for her.

"Hey," Johanna responded, trying her best to smile. "Care for a walk?"

Madge looked conflicted, but nonetheless went. Johanna noticed the girl slipping her training knife into her belt though. She couldn't help but feeling a bit of pride, for the career training seemed to work on Madge.

Madge followed as Johanna led them to Victor's Village, to the kitchen if the Everdeen house. They'd moved Gale to Peeta's spare bedroom the previous day. It was the best place for Gale to be, for Wheaton would be there and they had stable electricity and running water.

"Tea?" Johanna offered.

Instantly, she knew she was going too much out of her way. Madge shrunk a bit.

"I'm not always mean, you know," she told the girl, as she set off to make the tea. "Life just sucked."

Madge nodded pointlessly, and Johanna had to restrain herself from laughing. She wasn't there to be mean to the girl. She was there to be nice and ask a favour.

"How is..."

"Gale?" Johanna cut in. "Getting better, I guess. Thanks for your gifts."

"S'okay," Madge responded weakly. "My Mom's better off without the medicine."

"Morphling," Johanna corrected, as she placed the cups if tea on the table. "They do it for fun in Capitol. My friend said it helps you forget. Didn't know Maysilee was your aunt, Missy. Sorry."

"Not your fault," Madge responded, smiling sadly. "I've never met her anyway."

"Sucks for your mother though," Johanna tried to sympathize. She'd almost been where the mayor's wife was currently at. She nearly lost her sister to the Games.

"I'm so happy you brought Katniss home," the girl said honestly, another smile breaking on her face. "She's my closest friend."

"Even closer than Gale?" Johanna raised an eyebrow.

Madge avoided her gaze.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop teasing you," Johanna backed off. "I know you like him a lot."

"I do," Madge admitted. "You love him, though. It's different."

Johanna chuckled.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"The looks you throw him," Madge listed, looking back at Johanna. "The way you speak to him. The fact that you threw yourself between the whip and him the other day."

"Are you a stalker or what?" Johanna blurted. "Oh well, you like him, so I guess it would be obvious to you."

"I know he's been seeing you every now and then," Madge replied, staunch and steadfast. "He's gotten much happier since you started talking again."

"Look," Johanna said, staring straight into the girl's eyes. "I wasn't trying to snatch your crush or something, okay? I was just sick of ignoring him. We were friends before it all started."

She paused, before continuing, "I have no bloody right to claim him back anyway. I dumped him just like that. He's fully yours now."

"No," Madge disagreed with a sad smile. "He'll never be. He loves you. Even when you're not talking, it's always you."

"It's puppy love," Johanna dismissed Madge, though the statement made her heart skip a beat. "It'll go away. We were only together for four hours or so, when we were fifteen. Wasn't even official. In a few months, he'd have forgotten. Just claim him."

Madge cast her eyes on her lap.

"I'll take care of him when you're gone, if that's what you want," she said, finally looking up again. "But for the sake of all of us, stop sabotaging yourself. You're not letting any of us win."

* * *

**Katniss**

Johanna laughed at her when she ouch-ed during the waxing session. They had her prep team: Octavia, Flavius, and Venia in the house since early in the morning, as well as Cinna who was now downstairs talking to her mother and Prim. Johanna was coming with her on the tour, and they both needed beauty base zero.

"Can't believe you two were stupid enough to roll a cart over!" Octavia scolded them, as she had close look at Katniss's arm and Johanna's back. "We're gonna need concealers for these!"

The plump young woman proceeded with muttering something about how backwards transport at the districts were. Katniss eyed Johanna, who winked at her from the chair across the room. The air was thick, with five people and countless beauty products around them. Katniss was dead scared she was going to be painted pink or purple.

"Brazilian or Hollywood?" she heard Octavia speaking next, most likely to Johanna.

"Forget that," Johanna waved off. "I'm not seeing anyone. I'm not going to suffer for no one."

"Katniss?"

Johanna cackled and raised an eyebrow across the room.

"District boys aren't fussed about that," she told the prep team with a gleam of something in her eyes. "They like things simple and natural."

"What are you talking about?" Katniss blurted, unable to stay quiet for longer.

Octavia and Flavius looked at her as if she had just asked where the sun rises.

"I told you about that already," Johanna helped, looking at her. "You helped me showering after my big accident last year and asked me about it. Can't believe your memory span's that small."

And suddenly Katniss realized what they meant. Instinctively, she closed her legs together and locked them, causing her prep team and sister to laugh.

"Actually," Johanna teased, turning around to Octavia, "why don't you run next door and ask Peeta about it?"

Katniss picked up her pillow and flung it to her sister's face. She felt heat creeping up her face. Johanna knew. She didn't quite know what gave her away, but Johanna had figured out. She might have walked funny or something after that first night.

"It's no big deal, Brainless," Johanna added, as if the humiliation wasn't enough. "You're both sixteen and in love. It's normal. By the way, congrats for losing your V-card. So nice of you to wash his sheets afterwards and hang it out at five in the morning."

Katniss rolled over and buried her face on another pillow. Bits and pieces of that night flooded her brain.

She'd just come back from her hunt, hands full with some squirrel she knew Peeta would love. She'd come over to his house to deliver them, only to find him deep in his latest painting. One of those dark, remorseful ones he'd been painting since they came home Victors. One dear in their hearts, of Rue laying in a bed of wildflowers. The night had ended up in tears and emotion and pain, and when they started kissing, they just found themselves lost in each other. Before long, they were on his bed, brains hazy and eyes blurry and everything. Like any first time would, Katniss found it awkward and short, over after what might be a short minute or two. In a true Peeta fashion, he kept apologizing profusely afterwards, feeling that he'd been using her. She had to assure him he hadn't, before they were able to be with each other that way, again.

After that second time, they'd been active, and better, and more intertwined with each other that Katniss thought they were as good as husband and wife.

She eyed the bedside drawer Johanna had given to her to use, praying that no one would discover the little packets of birth control pills she had Madge ordering for her. She'd packed more than enough for the tour, hidden with her underpants in the suitcase, but there were still heaps of them. She was too paranoid to risk it.

"That type of pill sucks, by the way," Johanna blurted. "I've ordered you the one we Victors all vouch for."

Katniss scowled and let out a mental groan. What hadn't Johanna discovered?

Venia smiled and put a hand on Johanna's shoulder. Johanna looked up and smiled back at the older woman. With a strange twisting in her chest, Katniss realized Venia had been preparing her older sister since Johanna first stepped her feet in Capitol. They were old friends, and judging the look of it, confidantes.

She wondered how much Venia knew about the dark part of Johanna's past.

The thought of what the other Victors faced as a price of their victories occupied Katniss for the rest of the morning. It was only when they finally let her step out of the house that she was back in reality.

Peeta and Haymitch were sitting with the former and current Careers of District Twelve at the front porch of the Everdeen house. They all stood up and gave her an applause when she emerged in her shiny coat. She hugged all the friends she wouldn't see during her tour: Delly and her brother, Wheaton, Madge, Rory - Gale's brother, her sister Prim, and lastly Gale. He was still in considerable pain and really pale, but he'd been slowly getting his stoic self back. There was fire in his eyes as he looked at her and clapped her on the back, nodding encouragingly at her.

The door creaked behind her, and Johanna emerged. She wasn't supposed to outshine Katniss and they'd deliberately dressed her more simply, but to Katniss, her sister was still the beautiful one. She was just the strange middle child.

Peeta seemed to have noticed her moment of crisis, for he'd sneaked an arm around her and kissed her temple.

"You look amazing," he whispered in her ear.

"Nah," she replied through her smile, as she watched her sister saying goodbye to their friends. Seeing Johanna and Gale hugging hurt her. There was a slight change in the air when the two hugged. It was both beautiful and devastating.

Behind them, Effie closed the house's front door. The car rolled in, and she climbed on the back with her sister. Peeta took the front seat, and they tailed Haymitch and Effie's car to the station, where the train had been waiting.

"Back on the traaaiiinnn...," Johanna sang in a singsong voice as they climbed in. Katniss playfully cupped her hands on her ears. Johanna could actually sing alright, but always deliberately used her screechy voice to annoy people.

"We're going to eleeeeveeennnn..."

"For God's sake, Doll! Just sit down and let the rest of us live!"

Peeta squeezed her hand, and she smiled at him. She was still scared, but was, too, excited.

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for reading! Hope you all like it. I did change the timeline a bit; hope you all don't mind :).

I'll see you on Saturday (Friday if you are in the different half of the world from where I am :)), with the chapter which summarised the Victory Tour. Till then, have an awesome (last half of the) week!


	14. Chapter 15: The Beginning

**AN:** Hello everyone, it's me again! Twelve hours early, since I can't wait to post this chapter :).**  
**

I would like to thank you all for reading, and welcome my new follower Kathia12. I would also like to thank Kathnia12 for putting this story as a favourite, and say my special thanks to my reviewers Norbert's Mom, Ellie82, and jc52185. Hopefully you will like this chapter and the next ones too.

This chapter is all about personal relationships and staging up the rebellion. I chose not to describe the Victory Tour in great details, for I think it would distract from the main storyline and the focus of the Catching Fire part. This chapter contains a part I'm a bit worried about - the little argument between Johanna and Katniss. Hopefully it's not too OOC, for I had a bit of difficulty writing it (and other parts which exposes Johanna's vulnerability, in general).

**Disclaimer: **The Hunger Games trilogy and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing them to tell a story. This chapter features two original characters in their roles as Johanna's friends. They belong to me, and should be straight away spottable :).

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen: The Beginning**

**Johanna**

"Shit. That was just... shit."

Johanna looked at her shaken, remorseful mentee and handed him the glass of Vodka she'd been cradling. Peeta took it without hesitation and downed it in one go. They were sitting together at the open area behind the last car of their tour train, reminiscing the shocking events in District Eleven. A riot had broken after a member of the tour audience was shot for singing Rue's four tune signal.

"That's how it is," she told him, squeezing his slumped shoulders. "You defy, you pay. It shouldn't be that surprising for you."

"Do you think it's stupid? Giving my Victor Pay to them, I mean."

"Yes," Johanna answered, looking up to the sky above them. "It was. You're such an idiot, Peeta Mellark."

"Sorry," the boy muttered weakly. Johanna turned to him and gave him another squeeze on the shoulders. The boy was too kind hearted, too gold hearted that he publicly gave his pay to the family of his dead ally. And too naive that he didn't realize it would do them more harm than good.

"Think before you speak next time," she told him. "Not that I do that, anyway, but you're too good to be destroyed."

"Why did you let all of those happen to you?"

She released his shoulders and pulled one of her hanging legs to her chest.

"If you were someone else, I'd have slapped you," she answered him sarcastically. "I love my sisters, Silly Boy. And my mother, to some extent."

_And Gale Hawthorne_, she continued in her heart. She didn't need to tell Peeta that, though she had a feeling Katniss had told him anyway.

"Wouldn't you do the same if you were in my shoes?" she asked him back afterwards. It was more of a small revenge than a question, really, for she hated the pity in his voice when he asked the question.

"Maybe I would," he said, "or I would kill myself, just to die as me."

"He'll nuke the district if you kill yourself," she sneered at him, shaking her head. "Everyone you care about would be dead."

There was silence, as Peeta balled his fists and looked up to the starry sky.

"This has to stop," he said, firmly and unrelentingly. "All of these have to stop. We're all humans. They can't keep doing all these things to us in the districts."

And then, just then, Johanna thought she _knew_ what the boys had been doing when they hung out together.

* * *

**Katniss**

If Eleven and Eight were tense and giddy with anger, and Ten and Nine were uneventful, Seven was perhaps interesting with Ash and Caroline Mason around.

They'd met Team Twelve at the station minutes after they pulled off. Katniss was too preoccupied with the thoughts of the restless textile workers of Eight to initially pay attention, but as time rolled by, she'd started noticing the friendship Johanna had with Ash Mason. They reminded her of what she had with Gale. They could have been brother and sister. They had been through a lot together.

And it made her quite jealous, that someone else was there for Johanna in those darkest hours, whilst Johanna had shunned her off.

She had the same resentment towards Caroline, for the bubbly, somewhat silly girl was too part of Johanna's little friendship group. Unlike Ash, though, Caroline actually made an effort to talk to her and Peeta, that within a few hours her animosity towards the girl had disappeared.

The Mason siblings spent a few hours with them in their halted train after the speeches and dinner. Caroline taught Katniss and Peeta a card game popular with the lumberjacks, but Ash basically disappeared with Johanna and Haymitch to the latter's compartment. When the night ended, Ash was wasted and had to be carried home by his younger, smaller sister, and Haymitch had passed out on the floor.

"I don't like your friend," Katniss grumbled to Johanna, as she climbed into her sister's bed. Normally, she would sleep with Peeta, but after the whole thing with Ash, she couldn't help but cling to her sister's legs like a small child. "He's kind of a jerk."

"He helped me getting you out of the arena, so just shut up," Johanna responded coldly, turning away from her.

Ash wasn't mentioned at Six and Five, and only made his way back to the conversations when they got to Four and met Finnick Odair. The guy was yet another character Katniss didn't really like. He was friendly, so was better than Ash by lot, but somewhat sleazy and cocky Katniss wished he'd gone away. She hugged him back when he hugged her, though, for Johanna's sake. Apparently he was the mastermind of whatever had gotten her and Peeta out of the arena.

"Thanks for being civil with my friends," Johanna said sarcastically, as their train left for district Three. "I know we're too dirty for your standard, but thanks for making the effort."

"You're welcomed," Katniss grunted, leaving the back carriage to find Peeta.

Johanna continued infuriating her by calling the nice Victors from Three 'Nuts' and 'Volts', and getting into fights with the mentors from Two and One. It was as if meeting Ash and Finnick had invoked something wild and uncontrollable in Johanna. She was closer to the sister Katniss had before the 71st Hunger Games. Bold, daring, carefree.

When they reached Capitol, Katniss's weariness at Johanna's friends had become the elephant in the room. She stomped out of the prep room when Johanna mentioned that Finnick and Ash were too in Capitol and would join them at the party. Johanna found her brooding on the roof of their hotel several short minutes later, staring at the sunset above her.

"Flavius's freaking out," Johanna said coldly, standing beside her. "And you look like shit with only a brow waxed, so stop being childish and get back in there."

"I'll go in later," Katniss responded without looking at her sister. "Just go find your friends."

Johanna sighed and plopped down next to Katniss.

"Listen, Brainless," she said, leaning towards her sister. "I know those boys are pigs, to put it mildly, but they keep me sane. You owe them a sound sister."

"I owe them nothing," Katniss responded, turning away.

Johanna's hand flew to Katniss's face. It stung Katniss, both physically and mentally. Johanna was supposed to be her sister _before_ their friend. Not the other way around.

"You wanna know what happened? Fine. We pawned ourselves to get both you and Peeta out of the arena, Brainless. Slept with the gamemakers. Let them do stuff to us, let them ask us to do stuff on each other. If that wasn't enough, I don't know what would be."

"Idiot," Katniss muttered, as tears welled up in her eyes. She didn't know how to feel anymore. The knowledge of her sister's sacrifice tore her apart, yet, part of her was still resentful that she was no longer her sister's best friend.

"No," Johanna replied through her own tears, "I just love you."

With that, she got up and made her way back to the door. It only took Katniss a second to decide what to do. She rose and ran after her sister.

"Joey," she pleaded, pressing her body on her still sister's back, "Joey. I'm sorry. I'm just..."

"Jealous?" Johanna finished for her. "I'm jealous too, you know. You have the whole gang now. Undersee. Delly. The boys. I just don't go around hating them. Even Undersee."

"I'm telling Gale when we get home," Katniss whispered, tightening her arms around Johanna. "He'll understand, Jo. I don't think he loves Madge the way he loves you."

"Don't," Johanna whispered, clasping her hands over Katniss's. "I made you swear, don't you remember? Let them be. I'm filthy, Kat. He deserves better."

"My big sister wouldn't say such thing," Katniss whispered back, letting her tears flow onto the back of Johanna's shirt. "Please come back, Joey. I won't let anyone harm you."

"Your sister's dead, Kitty," Johanna responded. She sounded so vulnerable and broken that Katniss almost broke down herself. "This is what I am now. But you're still my Kitty and I love you."

They both had swollen eyes Octavia and Flavius went into hysterics when they came back to the prep room. Katniss didn't care, though. She couldn't care.

Coriolanus Snow was going to _pay_ for what he'd done to Johanna.

* * *

Katniss spent the party trying the different kinds of food while eyeing the people she recognized as Gamemakers. After Johanna's revelation a few hours earlier, she couldn't help but doing that. Eating and Gamemaker-watching turned out not to be compatible activities after all. Her stomach lurched at the sight of some of them. They were too modified, too scary to be true. Throwing a glance at Johanna, who stuck around with Finnick, Ash, and Caroline, Katniss couldn't help but feeling like the worst person in the world for her earlier outburst. If Johanna and her friends could bear stooping so low to sleep with these people, then she could definitely do them favour by at least trying to be civil.

"Wanna come join them?" Peeta asked her, circling an arm around her. He'd gotten really good in reading her that he must have sensed her discomfort and guilt.

Katniss nodded quietly in response and let him lead her to the little group of four, who were busy inspecting some interesting looking dessert.

"Here The Lovebirds are," Johanna commented upon seeing them. She looked indifferent mostly, but Katniss could see a glint of excitement in her eyes, as if she'd been waiting for them to come all along. "What do you think this crap is, Bread Boy?"

"It's just a tower of cream-filled pastries glued with caramel," Peeta explained, crouching down to examine the thing closer. "Good craftmanship, I must say. Nice sugar-spinning."

"I'm not expecting any less than perfect for this party," Ash commented cynically. "Try this? We can vomit it out if it's not worth it. It's Capitol. You eat, you vomit, you eat again. Simple rule."

"I'll try, but I'm not vomiting," Katniss agreed firmly, looking at her sister's friend. Once she was able to see things more objectively, Ash was actually pretty much normal - if not alike to Johanna in demeanour and thoughts.

"Really?" Finnick teased her, winking. "You might be missing out on many good food, Little E."

'Little E' was the nickname Finnick and Ash called Katniss with. She didn't get it at first, until she realized that Johanna was 'Big Everdeen', and thus she was 'Little Everdeen'.

"I don't live to eat," Katniss responded, winking back. In objective terms, Finnick was handsome and lively, and actually harmless. The flirting was a bit much, but it wasn't actually serious - Katniss remembered Johanna mentioning he had Annie Cresta as a girlfriend.

They all thought about it for a while, until Johanna muttered "screw it" and began picking some puffs off the side of the dessert. Everyone else followed suit, and they all agreed afterwards that the thing tasted good. The rest of the night saw them all moving in a big group, sampling food and trying to talk to people. Peeta got along with everyone - Ash included - instantly, like a house on fire. Katniss was too quiet a person to be able to do the same. As things progressed, she thought she might know why Johanna was friends with Finnick and Ash. It was obvious how much the boys cared about her, under all the jokes and playful insults.

She loosened up at some point of the night, and actually accepted a dare from Finnick to finish a glass of some kind of drink she'd never seen before. Peeta was dead terrified, and he stood behind her all the time in case she passed out. The others, though, clapped enthusiastically as she downed the thing, Johanna cackling so loudly the whole room turned to them. As midnight approached, she became less and less burdened, and more and more alive in a strange way she'd never felt before. She was still quiet, for talking wasn't her thing. But she'd felt less wary, less reserved near these people. Johanna had trusted them, and they had all saved her. She could definitely trust them, even if their only connection so far was their victories and her sister.

"That's Plutarch," she heard Finnick suddenly saying, when she was still basking in the attention. "Let's come say hi."

She got up and followed them without thinking. The Plutarch guy Finnick was referring to turned out to be one of the Gamemakers who'd watched her individual sessions last year. He'd fallen into the punch bowl as Katniss lost her temper and shot at their roasted pig, and thus Katniss remembered him as if the session had only been yesterday.

"Hello, Young Ones," the guy greeted them, eyeing them with critical, appraising eyes. "You have some new additions, I notice."

"This is Johanna's sister Katniss, and her boyfriend Peeta," Caroline quickly introduced them. From the corner of her eyes, Katniss could see both Johanna and Ash rolling their eyes. There was no way Plutarch didn't know who they were - the party was for them.

"Yes," Plutarch acknowledged, a glint of something in his eyes. "Our newest Victors. I see that you've gotten acquainted with some of our previous Victors; good approach to victory I must say."

"It's always nice having friends with similar experiences, Gamemaker Heavensbee," Peeta cut in, with his usual adorable boyish smile. "I really like being able to talk about the perils of Capitol showers without getting a frown from my companions."

And again, he made everyone laugh. Katniss had to resist an urge to kiss him right there and right then. He'd always made things better for everyone.

Plutarch eyed his watch or a bit, then turned back to the little group.

"It starts at midnight," he said, showing them his watch. There was some kind of light he could activate to illuminate the face, and it was on for a bit, flashing an image of a Mockingjay. The thing had made its way from being Katniss's district token to being a national obsession - or a Capitol obsession, with everyone wearing replicas and other stuff enhanced with it. "I'd better go."

With that, he walked off and disappeared into the crowd, leaving them looking at each other.

"Heard he's Head Gamemaker this year," Finnick fed them with further gossip. "That could be a meeting for determining the theme of the Quell?"

"You fool," Ash chided, elbowing him. "Looks like you have forgotten that The Quells were written on the early days. You'd have remembered if only you hadn't been too busy flirting the girls in your classroom."

"He's uneducated, Ash," Johanna played along, elbowing Finnick too. "Second year of upper school! What did you get with that? How to tell apart a whale from a shark?"

"How to be irresistibly sexyyyy...," Finnick slurred in an attempt to play along. He stole a grateful glance at Ash and Johanna, though. As if they'd just saved him from something really bad.

... a slip-up, Katniss realized, as she replayed the last few sentences of the conversations in her head. He'd just basically told them that the Quarter Quells weren't predetermined. They were formulated only a few months in advance, adjusting with the current needs of Panem.

Caroline yawned loudly, and just then, the clock struck twelve.

"Party's over," she said, kicking her high heels off. "I'm bailing now, if you guys don't mind."

They all bailed along with her. Team Twelve was staying in their hotel that night, but Finnick, Ash, and Caroline had this Capitol apartment they used whenever they were in town. Katniss watched them quietly as they disappeared into the streets, tired and tipsy.

* * *

"Did you live with them?" she asked Johanna, once they were in their pajamas and in bed. She'd climbed into her sister's bed instead of Peeta's tonight, since it was impossible for her not to do so after the little fight she'd had with Johanna earlier in the day.

"Yep," Johanna answered. "I still have a room there, I think. Isn't this place good enough for you? Don't tell me yes, because I spent some time coaxing Volts into debugging it today."

"I don't feel safe," Katniss admitted, turning to her sister.

"That's a good attitude," Johanna responded. Like Katniss, she was wide awake. Looked like sleep wouldn't come for them for several more hours. "You can't trust The Capitol and everything they put you in."

"Will they kill us if we join your friends now?" Katniss asked sheepishly.

"Thought you hated them," Johanna teased her, raising an eyebrow. "On a more serious note, that could be interpreted as an act of defiance. So you're right. Except that they don't let you die easily. Won't be surprised if they decide to boil you for that."

She paused for a bit and looked up, as if deciding whether or not to continue.

"I remember this room from a couple of years ago," she then said, turning to Katniss. "They'd changed it slightly and removed the goddamned one-way lock, but this is still the room."

"The room?" Katniss asked again, frowning.

"My first assignment," Johanna answered. She looked indifferent, as if it was an everyday story, but her sad eyes betrayed her. "He was forty or something like that. They locked the room from outside."

"Did you fight him?"

"You should've been able to tell I didn't. If I did, you would've been dead. Roasted at the district fencing or torn apart by some beast in the woods or something."

"Did it hurt?"

Johanna just smiled and stroked Katniss's cheek, in a rare tender display of affection.

"You don't forget your first," she answered indirectly, turning away. "Sweet dreams, Brainless."

Another thing to bring up against Snow, when the time came.

Neither of them slept that night, though they wouldn't tell each other about it. They both looked like mess when they boarded the train which took them back to Twelve the next day, so much that Haymitch sent them to bed straight away.

* * *

**Johanna**

The crowd of Twelve was more enthusiastic for Katniss and Peeta than they'd been for her, she noticed. Not that it bothered her much. She'd learnt that victory was nothing but an illusion.

She watched on as The Mayor - Miss Undersee's father - presented the new Victors the district gifts. Twelve didn't have much, so it was a plaque and a bouquet of flowers. She couldn't help but feeling relieved as she scanned the crowd. Everyone she recognized was still there. Nothing changed, bar the presence of several new Peacekeepers and the absence of several former ones.

Prim - gosh, she'd never realized how much she'd missed the little brat - had waited for them under the stage when they finished. And so did the rest of Katniss and Peeta's little group. She noticed that Gale was standing close to Miss Undersee. Looked like the girl had kept her promise, after all.

"Where's Ma?" she heard Katniss asking Prim, after they were done with hugs.

"She went to see Madge's mother," Prim answered, glancing quickly at Madge who was listening to Peeta's story about the tour. "Apparently they were friends."

"Good on her," Johanna commented, recalling their conversation the night Gale got whipped. "She could use some friends."

"Yeah," Prim admitted, grinning.

Took them a few minutes to settle down and started walking. Prim led the way back to Victor's Village. The girl had grown up considerably when Katniss was in the Games, and had seemingly grown up more during the Tour. Johanna wondered, for a fleeting moment, whether there would be three Everdeen Victors in the future, whether her baby sister would too win The Hunger Games.

_Not in my lifetime_, she decided soon, mentally slapping herself in the head for thinking about it.

(Prim never ended up winning The Hunger Games, in Johanna's lifetime or Katniss's lifetime or her own lifetime. Officially, at least.)

They were just a few feet away from the front door when a familiar hand grabbed her by her elbow. Without even turning, she knew who it had been. Gale.

"I need some private words with you," he told her, dragging her away from the crowd. "Follow me."

**to be continued...**

* * *

****Thanks for reading everyone! I'll see you tomorrow with the next update (yes, yes, I can't even wait to update :)). The next chapter will be one of my favourite chapters, because ... (fill in the blanks! :)). Have a nice Friday!


	15. Chapter 16: The Quell

**AN: **And I'm back with the next chapter everyone! One of my favourite ones in the story, by events :).

Thanks for reading and being with me so far. Special thanks for jc52185 for putting this story as a favourite, and very special thanks to Norbert's Mom, jc52185, ellie82, and nothing2000 for their reviews. Hope this chapter meets your expectations!

This chapter will bring the start of Johanna's happy ending, as well as reveal what the Quarter Quell would be. It's hard-core romance and emotions without action, really. But don't you all fret, for the action will be back in a couple of chapters... with the Quarter Quell.

**Disclaimer: **The Hunger Games trilogy and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing them to tell my story. This story has a number of my original characters, in minor roles. They should be easily spottable, and will only be mentioned in this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen: The Quell**

**Johanna**

Gale didn't let go of her arm the whole time they spent walking to her old Seam house. Not for a second. His grip was tight and it hurt, but she felt strangely happy about it. It was insane how much she'd craved physical contacts with him.

She'd never had another love - contrary to all the gossips linking her to Finnick and Ash - but if this wasn't a real love she was feeling, then she didn't know how much one should love for it to be real. She berated herself for having this sappy thought as soon as it appeared in her brain, but somehow she believed it. She didn't know who taught her that, but she believed it.

For some reason she didn't fully understand, she loved Gale Hawthorne. With that kind of crazy, consuming love, which she was sure her sister and Peeta had for each other now.

He did have a little bit of look around when he opened the front door; as if he was scared someone was watching.

"Go in. Now," he ordered her, when he deemed it safe.

She didn't think it was a good idea at all, but the look on his face made her do it anyway. He had this 'do as I say' expression on.

The house didn't at all look dusty, as if someone had been living in it. With a single glance at the dodgy coat hooks on the wall, she knew who it was. Gale had somehow taken over her Seam house and moved out of Peeta's house.

"Didn't realize I'd given you permission to live here," she sneered, folding her arms protectively on her chest.

He bolted the door and turned around in lightning speed, looking at her.

"Screw all of these, Johanna," he spat out.

Without much warning, he grabbed her chin and forced their lips together. At first, the memory of her dark days took over, and she squirmed. But then something else appeared within her chest, and she started kissing him back. She didn't know why she cried, but she did. It was as if it completed her, bringing her back to where she belonged.

He lifted her by her waist and carried her up the stairs, kissing her intermittently the whole time. Her old bed still stood in her old bedroom. She could smell him on the right half of the new sheets as he set her down on it; he'd guessed her side of the bed right.

"Nice guess," she told him, as he plopped down next to her. "I slept here. Brainless slept on the other side."

"I didn't guess," he responded, looking at her with a gentle fire in his eyes. "I just knew."

They sat there in silence for a bit. They were both still, but Johanna could hear both their heartbeats in this small space.

"Madge told me what Snow did to you."

"That loony idiot," she commented, turning away for she couldn't bear looking at his face. "She could've kept it in her mouth and had you."

"She's the better person," he responded softly.

"Then why are we here now?" she asked, chuckling. "You should be kissing her. Not me."

The bed shifted a bit as he stood up and knelt before her. His voice was both angry and sweet as he told her, "it's always been you."

* * *

It took her a good hour or two, but finally she managed to tell him all.

She told him about Finnick and Annie, of how the poor girl had been reaped despite Finnick's attempts to hide the relationship. She also told him about Ash and Caroline and what happened to their family and Ash's girlfriend when the brave boy refused to do what Snow asked. All the things she was made to do; the clients she'd had. The times she and her friends were hired together. That one last time when she went in Caroline's place because the other hire was Ash and got into trouble.

"Do you like any of those two guys?" he asked afterwards, his voice thick with both jealousy and sadness.

"I love them," she answered, looking up at him. "I love them enough to be their best friend. I don't think I... actually, I don't love them the way I love you."

"What did you think when you were with them?"

"Not trusting me?" she asked, chuckling bitterly. "Good choice, Hawthorne. You know I'm a selfish, devious bitch."

"Johanna, you..."

"Yes, yes, yes," she cut in, waving him off. "I broke my promise. And I'm living with it every single day, so just keep going on of how selfish I am."

He kicked on the bedpost in frustration and turned away.

"Alright, Jealous," she said, shaking her head at his display of childish frustration. "I closed my eyes and thought about you. Still jealous?"

He got up and walked towards the door.

"I... I need some time to process all of these, Okay? I'll be back."

With that, he left her alone in her childhood bedroom, with no one but his scent and her memories as company.

* * *

**Katniss**

When three hours passed and Johanna still wasn't back from whatever talk she had with Gale, Katniss put her coat back on and did a quiet march to Madge's house behind Prim and Peeta's backs.

"Do you know what that was all about?" she blurted out to Madge, as soon as they were alone.

Madge looked her straight in the eyes.

"I told him what happened to her," the blonde said steadfastly, her voice flat and business-like as if there was no emotions involved.

Katniss had assumed that she knew Madge well. However, as the sentence left her best friend's lips, she realized there was actually really little she knew about the Merchant girl. Never had she imagined Madge willingly throwing away what she had with Gale. For the sake of Johanna, of all people.

"But... but you like him."

It was more of a statement than an exclamation, for what was done was done.

Madge placed a firm hand on Katniss's forearm.

"S'okay," she said comfortingly, "those two love each other."

Katniss placed her own hand above Madge's and squeezed her friend's smaller, softer hands.

"How about you?" she quietly asked, looking at her friend in the hope to find the truth in Madge's expression. There was something which could be sadness there, but not much else. Madge was pretty much stoic.

"I'll be alright," Madge answered firmly, a demure smile breaking on her face. "He's the first guy I really like, so it does hurt a bit, but I'm sure I'll find another guy to like. I don't think I can be with any District Twelve boy anyway. I want to see the world and the rest of Panem."

(In saying what she'd just said, Madge was actually describing the adult life she would end up having - with the exception that she would end up loving the guy she'd find, not just liking him. But right now, neither of the girls knew about that.)

They both chuckled at Madge's revelation, and retreated back to the comfortable silence which defined their friendship.

* * *

Johanna was back, and was sitting in the kitchen with a cup of tea and a meowing Buttercup when Katniss got back two hours later.

"Thank God you're here," the older girl said, as soon as Katniss entered the room. "Help me entertaining this stupid cat. The Brat's at your boyfriend's learning how to bake."

"Just dump him outside," Katniss responded, throwing herself onto the chair across her sister. "He doesn't like anyone whose name isn't Prim. Buttercup, out. Now."

The meows turned into hisses, and the creature stalked out of the room arrogantly soon afterwards.

Johanna snorted into her tea and cackled so loudly that the table shook with her.

"It's fucking hilarious," she gasped afterwards, shaking her head. "Kitty and the cat hate each other."

That cracked up Katniss too, and she joined her sister in laughter.

"I blame you for that," she said, clutching her aching stomach after their laughter died down. "You're the one calling me Kitty."

"I only started calling you that because you called me Joey," Johanna responded, clutching her own stomach.

"I wasn't even two years old!" Katniss defended her younger self. "How on earth could I say 'Johanna'?"

"Whatever, Kitty," Johanna waved her off, slamming her cup on the table. "Where on earth were you?"

"I went to Madge's," Katniss answered, stealing a sip from her sister's tea. It was... hot. As in, laced with some kind of alcohol it warmed up your insides.

"How's she?" Johanna asked somewhat quietly.

"She's fine," Katniss responded, pushing the tea back to Johanna. "She's taking it really well."

"That girl's a saint," Johanna grumbled, shaking her head.

"She might as well be," Katniss agreed, resting her cheek on the table. Her mother would scold her for that, but Johanna didn't mind, so she didn't really care. "What happened after Gale pulled you aside?"

"He took me to ol' Seam House," Johanna answered, resting her cheek on the table in a mimicking gesture. A deja vu washed over Katniss, as she realized this was what they used to do back in lower school, when they needed to spill their little hearts out. "He lives there and takes over my side of the bed."

"You let him, uh, have you there? On our childhood bed?" Katniss asked, narrowing her eyes at the disturbing thought.

Johanna laughed at the notion.

"My Pure Kitty is now dirty minded," she commented, looking both amused and a bit sad. "I guess I have Peeta Mellark to castrate for this."

"You're not coming near my boyfriend," Katniss shot back warily, secretly fearing the playful threat. "And you haven't answered my question."

"Fine, fine," Johanna lifted a hand in a surrendering gesture. "Screw the fucking. Or lovemaking. Or whatever you call it. I haven't beaten you in getting laid department. He made me tell him everything, then left me there. Waited two bloody hours for him to come back, before giving up."

"He'll come back," Katniss said firmly, believing what she was saying. "You won't know when, but he will."

"What are you? Expert on behavioural theory on Gale Hawthorne?" Johanna asked, half seriously and half teasingly.

Katniss chuckled at the notion and stuck out a tongue at her sister.

"I just know," she answered, "he's too similar to me for our own good."

And surely, she was right. As she settled to sleep - in Peeta's room, in Peeta's house - she could see all the six-feet-and-something of Gale Hawthorne. He stood under Johanna's window, pelting it with pebbles until the eldest Everdeen daughter opened it and headed down to meet him.

* * *

**Johanna**

He'd stood there in front of the back door when she opened it, red-eyed and somber-faced.

"Maniac!" she scolded him, scanning around the darkness surrounding them. "Have you forgotten about the woman and the brat? Just because Katniss's cooped up with her Loverboy, doesn't mean that I'm alone here!"

He ignored her outburst and barged straight in, shutting the door closed behind them.

"I should have known," he said, slumping against the closed door. "I should have known."

"Known what?!" she snapped at him, losing her patience. He couldn't be here. Not with her mother and Prim around. No one should know he was visiting a former whore and a murderer, even if they'd loved each other.

He pulled her on top of him and kissed her fiercely, so possessively she had to pull away to breath.

"That this is the only truth."

She chuckled through her forming tears.

"You're going loony," she spat out, smiling at no particular person or object, "you're going freaking loony."

"I'm not," he responded, smiling that rare smile he'd reserved just for her. "I'm just decided."

* * *

He slept in her bed that night. Well, not really. They weren't really sleeping. They just laid there face to face, drinking each other's presence. To her, he felt like a soothing balm. She'd never realized how burnt she was, how much her soul was actually aching, until she was back in his arms.

"Have you ever done this with someone else?" he asked her.

"Yes," she answered. "Brainless and The Brat. Just my sisters. And I'm usually the hugger, not the one being hugged."

He looked up, as if gathering resolve to say something.

"Not a single man?" he finally asked, drawing a deep breath as if it pained him.

She chuckled at the question.

"If you'd hired a whore," she answered him, "would you waste the hours you've purchased just hugging her?"

There was only silence, as his eyes started welling up.

"Johnny," he croaked out, "Johnny."

"Don't you cry," she replied warily, trying her best to smile. "You won't change anything."

"No," he said, looking at her with his flickering fire in his eyes, "I will change everything."

* * *

That sad night was the beginning of Johanna and Gale, reprised. It was the first of their countless nights together.

Things went a bit funnily for them, for they were both experienced but were never in a proper relationship with anyone else. They fought a whole lot of time, for he was headstrong and she was headstrong and neither of them wanted to back off - and initially, they knew no other way of fixing it than to go physical. Soon, they learned that a kiss wouldn't always fix all your problems. A talk - a proper one - would.

They went stronger throughout winter, and during those early days of spring. Piece by piece, shards of her broken soul glued themselves to each other. When she looked in the mirror, she would sometimes see the girl she'd been before the 71st Hunger Games - even for a fragment of a second.

He surprised her by agreeing to keep things secret. She was expecting an outburst or a call for quits when she told him they had to lay low, but instead, he said a "yeah" out loud. This intrigued her - and scared her. Add on that hour he spent with the boys doing 'boys' stuff' every three days, and her suspicion that he'd been planning some kind of uprising grew stronger.

With the rolling weeks, came the day the Quarter Quell would be announced.

There had been secret bets at The Hob of what it would have been - brothers, sisters, lovers, to people who looked a certain way. She didn't hear it first hand, of course; the Careers of District Twelve brought it to her. They were still training, in secret, in a room in Peeta's house they'd converted into a makeshift gym. After Gale's whipping incident, no one really came out to the woods, again.

They all decided to make watching the announcement less grim by holding a party in the Everdeens' place. Peeta baked a whole lot of things - cakes, pastries, breads, name-its. Delly brought in party props, and decorated the place with Madge and Prim. The rest of the boys - and Johanna and Katniss - set up games and drinks and the meat. They ate and drank and went merry, before the dreaded announcement came.

_"On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors."_

She wished she'd been more wary when the President said nothing.

* * *

**Katniss**

"Back to the arena," she heard her sister's sarcastic comment. "What a joy."

Their party had quickly died after the announcement. Gale stormed out of the room, Wheaton in tow. Prim and Delly cried, whilst Madge offered consoling hugs to Katniss, Peeta, and Johanna. The younger boys just stood there looking on, as if unsure of what to do. They all sat in silence for a couple of minutes, until a bottle-swinging, sneering Haymitch barged in.

Now, there were only the four Victors and the sad remnants of the previous celebration. Madge had taken the cue and led all the rest of the Careers of District Twelve out of the house. Even Prim came with them. The youngest Everdeen girl refused to meet both her sisters in the eyes. It was as if she'd lost both of them forever, and Katniss understood her to some extent. Whomever of herself and Johanna they ended up reaping would most likely not make it back home alive. If they did, it meant that whomever of Peeta and Haymitch they ended up reaping - and Caroline Mason, who would definitely be reaped as the sole female Victor from Seven - were gone.

Snow was forcing them Victors to come face to face, even if they wouldn't like to.

"For two of you three," Haymitch responded, taking a swig from his bottle. He was already a little intoxicated; slumping on the couch. "There's no way they'll want me back in there. I'm the least of their District Twelve troubles."

And Katniss agreed with what he'd said. If, like what Johanna had always feared, this Quarter Quell would be a punishment for her and Peeta, it would most likely be herself and Peeta, or even more cruelly, Johanna and Peeta. Katniss knew she would chose her boyfriend's life over hers, but she wouldn't know whom would she choose between Johanna and Peeta. Her sister and her boyfriend.

She couldn't live without both of them. And whomever she would have to let go would haunt her forever, more than those career girls and that boy from One.

The root which anchored her to the ground and kept her steady, and the dandelion which gave her hope even in her most dreadful days. Whom would she choose?

Her eyes began watering. She threw her head back to stop the tears. Peeta would be really sad if she was sad, and Johanna hated tears of any kind.

"We need to train again," Peeta said, looking around at the other three Victors.

"Yeah," Johanna agreed. She turned to Haymitch and gave the man a fiery, piercing glare. "And that includes you, Old Man. The odds might be in your favour, and once you're up there on the stage, we'll have no way to save your arse."

Haymitch just snarled and took another swig of white liquor.

**to be continued...**

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****Thanks for reading everyone! I'll be back tomorrow with the next chapter... which will reveal what I consider one of the biggest changes from the original storyline. Till then, enjoy your (first day of) weekend! :)


	16. Chapter 17: The Plan

**AN: **Hi, it's me again! Thanks for reading. Welcome to my new follower ItsAllInYourHeadMyDear. Special thanks for ItsAllInYourHeadMyDear for putting this story in favourite list, and very very special thanks to nothing2000, Norbert's Mom, jc52185, and ellie82 for their reviews. Each and every of you brightened up my day.

I did something really stupid and left out the last bit of the previous chapter when posting. There should be an additional rule for the Quarter Quell... which you all will see at the beginning of this chapter, with some explanations.

This chapter is mostly fluff, with a little bit of drama at the end. I figured out the girls (and their boys) need some happiness, before one of them gets thrown into the Quell. It's more like the calm before the storm... since the boys are definitely up to something. :).

Anyway, enough of rambling. Hope you enjoy the story!

**Disclaimer: **THG and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing. I have some O.C.s in this story and they are mine, but none of them will appear in this chapter (might be mentioned, but they're not from Twelve so won't be here).

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen: The Plan**

**Katniss**

In a cruel twist, an additional announcement for the Quarter Quell came out just a few nights after the original announcement. The Capitol's reason was that they'd brought out the wrong box of Quarter Quell cards, but they all knew it was all but a lie.

_"In addition, as a reminder to the rebels that the weight of their defiance against the Capitol is on themselves, volunteering will not be allowed."_

Looked like Snow really wanted a specific Everdeen sister dead, and another one destroyed. Which one he wanted dead, Katniss didn't really know, but she had a feeling it was her.

* * *

When one got a death penalty, they often had to wait months - or years - for the execution to roll in. Katniss had never given that wait a thought before, but as she trained and waited for the Reaping Day to come, she'd come to sympathize with those poor souls. Knowing that you would most probably die was one thing. Knowing that you live each of your day just waiting to be dead was another.

Peeta commented, jokingly, that she'd gotten really clingy as of recently, and she told him she could have said the same about him. The time they didn't spend training, they spent mostly together. She was practically living in his house now. Sometimes she wouldn't go home for days on end, only seeing Johanna during training and Prim for a brief moment after school. Whenever she was home, though, she would cling to Prim. And Johanna, if she wasn't too lost in her own world of waiting and grief with Gale. Since The Quell announcement, Johanna no longer bothered hiding her relationship with Gale, and he'd moved in with her and stopped working in the mines. He'd taken the role as their Drill Sergeant during trainings, and was single-handedly responsible, in Katniss's opinion, for the shrinking of Haymitch's pot belly.

"What are you gonna do, once the Games rolls in?" Katniss asked Gale one day, when they were out plucking some chicken. She'd just turned seventeen a few days prior, and Prim had organized a party with the Careers of District Twelve to celebrate. It would have been a great day, if only Johanna, Peeta, and Haymitch weren't all down with some kind of stomach problem. 'Edible Plants Training' with Gale meant that you had to eat things you deemed safe, and they'd all screwed up with some laxative plants in the morning.

"Cheer for District Twelve, I guess," Gale answered without looking up from his chicken. "There's nothing else to do."

"The more I think about it, the surer I am that it would be me and Peeta," she told him, putting down the half-plucked chook she was holding. "They're going to make us pay for whatever we did."

Gale jumped up and stared down at her angrily.

"To the hell with paying!" he snapped. "You don't owe them anything, Catnip! We owe them nothing! They owe us things!"

"That's to you," she responded to him warily, standing up for his stature really intimidated her. "They don't think the way we do."

"I don't give a shit," he snapped again, sitting back down. "You're not owing them anything, Catnip. Not a single cent."

He looked up and sighed, before continuing, "they owed us your sister's life. And Haymitch's."

Katniss plopped back down next to him and continued her work with the chook. Knowing Gale, she knew well that nothing she said would matter. He would still burn with bright hatred towards The Capitol.

The birthday party was great, if not slightly somber. Wheaton helped Peeta baking and decorating a cake - a Katniss Flower cake. Delly was again in charge for decorating, and Madge played an amazing rendition of "Happy Birthday" on the rarely-touched piano they had in the house. They all gave her all kinds of Good Luck charms - horseshoes, four-leaf clovers, to old brooches and amulets. And, in the case of Johanna, some embarrassing underwear which undoubtedly was purchased from The Capitol. She threw it back at her sister as soon as she opened it, only to have Johanna dodging it and the thing landing on Peeta's face instead.

"Here," he handed it back to her with his usual kind, boyish smile.

She dived face-first onto the couch, trying to ignore the room's roaring laughter.

Prim saved her by calling for a group photograph. It took a while to round everyone on a spot and to call in their mother from the kitchen to help taking the picture, but at the end, they got several good shots.

"You guys want a family photo?" Wheaton offered afterwards.

Katniss threw Johanna a look. Her older sister just shrugged, as if she didn't mind whether they had the photo taken.

"Alright," the middle girl decided at the end, knowing that on her birthday next year - if there was to be another birthday for her - there might be fewer Everdeens than there already were.

(Katniss would live for many more birthdays after that, though there would indeed be fewer Everdeens than there currently were on her next birthday. Some long, long years later, she would tell her biographer that her decision to have the photo taken that day was one of the few she'd made in her teenage years and never regretted.)

Delly arranged them in positions around the armchair. Their mother sitting, with Prim perching on one of the arms and the older girls standing behind it. It looked a bit wrong, for Prim was taller than both Johanna and Katniss, but it reflected how their family was, and thus Katniss deemed it a good one.

She thought that the party was all of it, but she was wrong apparently. As soon as their last guest - Delly and her brother - left the Everdeen house, Peeta took her hand and led her to her bedroom upstairs. Not the one she'd shared with Johanna, for now it belonged to Johanna and Gale, but the one she'd slept in for two and a half years before she got her older sister back.

"I have something to confess," he told her with a sheepish smile, as they stood before the door. "We didn't actually eat the plant. Well, Haymitch kind of did, for fun, but not Johanna or I."

"Damn you," Katniss chuckled, hitting him playfully on the chest. "What were you doing the whole afternoon then? And on those 'bathroom breaks'?"

He smiled at her and opened the door.

"This," he told her, revealing the candle-lit room.

She stepped in and had a look around. Her hunter's eyes immediately recognized the big and small shapes on the bed, the floor, and the desk. Mockingjays. Just like the one on her district token last year. All made of burning tea light candles.

"Happy birthday, Mockingjay," he whispered in her ear, hugging her from behind. "We love you."

* * *

**Johanna**

"You two are insane," Gale scolded her, as he threw the last of the extinguished candles into the burlap sack. "You could have burnt the house! Everything here could have caught fire!"

"Shut the hell up and just help me!" she scolded him back, not having any of his outburst. "He only wanted to make her happy! I don't give a shit about the house, anyway. Snow can rebuild it if he wants to."

He tensed at the mention of the president's name. For a moment, she regretted telling him her sad stories. At this rate, he was going to go to the Capitol to assassinate Snow himself, and to castrate those Capitol men who had practically raped her.

"Let's... let's go to bed," she muttered, suddenly having flashbacks of her days in Capitol thanks to the thought. "We can throw these out tomorrow."

He grumbled out something she couldn't catch, but got up and walked next to her nevertheless, a protective arm around her waist as they made their way across to her room - their room now.

They stripped down to their underclothes in silence and slid under the covers. A protective arm around her, and she was safe. He was a third of her world - another third were her sisters, and the rest were Haymitch and her friends.

"What did your Ma say about this?" she asked him quietly, recalling that he'd mentioned in passing earlier about seeing his mother to talk.

"She kind of flipped at me," he answered, chuckling a bit. "Said we should go to the Justice Building and have a toasting, now that I've 'broken the seal'."

In her normal state, she would laugh. But right now, in all the fragility from the knowledge that she might go back into the arena - or worse, send her sister back in there with Peeta - all she could do was letting her memories take over.

"Crap," she heard him muttering, as she closed her eyes and whimpered. "I didn't mean to say that, Jo. Really."

"S'Okay," she whispered, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. "I'd rather her not knowing that I was a whore."

He let out a groan of frustration and sat up, looking down at her.

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling yourself that?" he asked her, almost harshly.

"I was one," she answered him. The voice coming out didn't sound like her, and she hated it, but she couldn't control anything. "Stop telling me I wasn't. You're lying to yourself."

"Screw this," he snapped, grabbing her chin. "He took it all from you, Jo. He took it all away. I'll make sure he pays for that."

A frantic arm-swatting session later, he released her and let her crumple back onto the sheets. She curled up and looked into his angry eyes. She'd heard all of these whispers of the power women had on men, but until recently, she'd never believed it. She'd never had any power against Snow and all those men; she simply closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and accepted. Being with Gale - in all his anger and all her brokenness - changed that. It scared her how much her ordeal burned him, how much it willed him to risk his own life - the very life she'd tried really hard to protect.

"I did that for you, just so you know," she tried reasoning, looking at him pleadingly. "It would all go to waste if you die."

"I'd die a hundred times if it freed you," he replied, turning away to the closed window. "Really, Jo. You have no idea how that hurt."

"And I'm the one who was sold," she commented cynically, anger over his reckless comment pulled her out of her misery for a second. "All you had to do was sitting here forgetting me. What was hard about it?"

"That's what I told myself, at start," he answered, sounding so distant and upset. "But I couldn't. I don't know why, but I couldn't."

"You're obsessed," she snorted, lifting a hand to trace the jagged scars on his back. "You fell in this puppy love with a fifteen year old, who broke her promise and went to be a whore instead, and you haven't gone anywhere in almost four years. When would you stop?"

"I... I don't know," he quietly said, looking up at the ceiling. "Maybe when I'm dead."

(And yes, his fixation on her went with him until that last breath. And beyond, although no living person could possibly know about it. They became two of the most famous historical lovers of Panem - with their own movie as a proof.)

He turned to her and looked at her, before confessing, "I've had a thing for you since lower school."

"Oh God," she groaned, covering her face with her hands. "Leave all the sappiness to Brainless and Loverboy, won't you?"

"Too late," he waved her off, smiling a wary smile. "You should have told me the last day of second year."

"D'oh," she sneered, shaking her head as she propped herself up on her elbows. "I don't think my memory goes that far."

"You wielded a stick and chased off those Merchant boys who were taunting your little sister," he helped her remembering, chuckling at the memory. "I thought you were pretty cool."

"Bullshit," she called him off, recalling those years in lower school he'd spent teasing her and getting her annoyed. "You called me names and threw paper balls at me. Should I call that love? What about 'go back to District Seven'?"

He grew a bit red at the mention.

"I was just a kid, Okay," he tried explaining, looking at her with this uncharacteristic shyness in his face. "That was all I can do to get your attention."

"Oh Geez," she rolled her eyes, laughing. He was so hilarious. "All you had to do is talk to me, you know. I was a pretty lonely kid at school."

"I know," he responded, scowling at no one - most probably himself. "I'm still asking myself why, so stop laughing."

All things forgotten, they went to sleep soon afterwards. When she woke up the next morning, though, he was gone, a scrawled note on the pillow.

_'Boys' time. I'll come back later.'_

* * *

**Katniss**

They lost themselves in each other, again, soon after they got back into his room - their room.

Grey met blue, they stared into each other's eyes the whole time. They'd slowed down after those initial months of passion, but whenever they did it, he'd always made sure it was good for her before it was good for him.

He was Peeta. She was Katniss. And that was how they loved. Sweetly and privately.

"Where are you going?" she asked him the next morning, as she watched him getting dressed. They were early risers, by nature - hunter and baker - but he didn't usually get dressed so early for his morning activities were confined to the house.

"Gale called for a boys' morning," he answered her, smiling at her as their eyes met.

"What does he wanna do?" she asked him, scowling. They might only have two months left, and she didn't want him to go anywhere.

"I don't know, really," he shrugged, still smiling but shaking his head at her clinginess. "I'll be back by the afternoon. We can have lunch together, if you're not busy."

He left with a gentle kiss on her lips and a soft "I love you" shortly afterwards. She huffed and headed next door, to her family - her sister's - house, to the other people she loved besides her suddenly-mysterious boyfriend.

"How was your night, Brainless?" Johanna asked her, as she walked into the lounge room. Her sister was reading a book with her legs propped up on the coffee table, in some loose pants and an old shirt they'd used as house clothes.

"How was your night?" she echoed, not willing to answer the question.

"Standard," Johanna answered, flipping the page she was reading, "not getting laid. Hence I'm reading this."

Peering behind her big sister's shoulders, Katniss caught a paragraph or two of whatever Johanna was reading. She immediately turned away, for it was too graphic, too bizarre for her taste.

"No need to freak out, Brainless, none of this is real," Johanna reminded her from behind the book, without even looking up. "Not even humanly possible. This book kind of sucks."

"Then why are you reading it?" Katniss asked, irritated.

"Because I had no other thing to do," Johanna answered, closing the book and putting it on the table next to her feet. "Can you propose a better thing?"

Katniss looked at her sister.

"Let's track down the boys," she said, determined that it was happening. She really needed to know what they were doing, for it killed her.

Less than ten minutes later, they'd been on the road, quietly discussing - or arguing, to be more exact - about where the boys might have gone. Their general consensus was somewhere in The Seam, but they couldn't agree as to where exactly the boys went.

"They won't go to The Hob," Katniss hissed, pulling her sister away from the place. "Thread burned it, remember?"

"Nope," Johanna answered stubbornly, "there's no space in my head to remember it, with all your problems around."

They might or might not have called each other names at that stage.

Hawthorne house was quickly discounted, as well as Thom's house. Then, in a lightbulb moment, Johanna suddenly clicked her fingers.

"Shit," the older sister muttered, looking pissed off at herself. "Smart move, Johanna."

"Where?" Katniss asked, impatient and excited.

"Just shut your hole and follow me, Okay?"

Katniss relented and fought her urge to say things to her sister, as Johanna led her through their old neighbourhood. Halfway through, she started realizing where they'd been heading: home. Not home as in Victor's Village, but the shack-like house they'd been born and raised in.

"Should be here," Johanna said, pulling out her gold necklace - which had been given back to her by Peeta, after last year's games - out of her shirt. In addition to the pendant, there was a key there - a key to this shack.

Katniss followed quietly as her older sister slipped smoothly into the house. The boys were, indeed, here. Katniss could recognize their voices, talking to each other upstairs in the bedroom. Gale. Peeta. Wheaton. Thom - the Seam guy Gale and Wheaton hang around with. And Haymitch. Of all people, Haymitch. How was old enough to be their father.

"Three, Four, Six, Seven, Eight, Eleven," she could hear Haymitch explaining from upstairs. "That's all we know. Still trying to talk to Five, Nine, and Ten, but they weren't that interested the last time I checked. They don't quite trust Thirteen."

"That sounds enough," Gale's voice boomed next. "We can't save everyone."

"We should try, though," Peeta interjected, sounding disturbed at the idea. "Would be good if we can get all the Twenty-Four tributes and all the mentors out."

"Just drop One and Two," Wheaton commented, sounding astonished yet annoyed. "They'll backstab us."

"Yeah," Thom agreed. "And I think Gale has a point. We can't save everyone. We should get all of you out first, then try for your friends. I don't think Thirteen would appreciate us planting those from One and Two in their midst."

And as she looked at a wide-eyed, shocked Johanna, Katniss thought she might know what was happening. The boys - the men - were planning a mass Victor exodus to the supposedly destroyed District Thirteen.

**to be continued...**

* * *

Sooo... the boys were really up to something :).

Thanks for reading everyone. Hope you enjoyed that. I'll be back tomorrow with the next chapter - the last one before the Quarter Quell madness begins. Enjoy your Saturday night / Sunday morning!


	17. Chapter 18: The Victor Tributes

**AN: **Hello! Thanks for reading everyone. Welcome to my new follower aimegomez95. Thanks to aimegomez95 for putting it in favourite list, and special thanks to jc52185, axes tridents and snares, Ellie82, and Norbert's Mom for the reviews. Each and every of you keeps me writing :).

This chapter will cover quite a bit, continuing from the end of the last one when the girls found out what the boys had been planning, up until the individual training of the Quell. There will be quite a lot of emotional stuff/heart-to-hearts, as well as relationship building and introduction of some of the Quarter Quell tributes which will play fairly important parts for the rest of the story. The Quell action will start the next chapter.

**Disclaimer: **The Hunger Games trilogy, its settings, and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing. This chapter contains two (minor/side character) O.C.s which will be easily spottable. They belong to me.

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen: The Victor Tributes**

**Johanna**

She didn't even know what she was doing until she was standing in front of all the five of them, upstairs in her childhood bedroom, with all their heads turned to her.

The atmosphere was thick, as if a timebomb was about to explode. And sure, it exploded. She exploded.

"Boys' time, huh?" she sneered, her eyes set on Gale. He avoided her eyes, as if they were daggers or something like that. "More like insurgents' time, I see. Chauvinistic, misogynistic insurgents' time."

A familiar presence next to her, and she knew her little sister had too climbed up to bust this little gathering. Without even looking at Katniss, she knew her little sister was, too, disappointed. After seventeen years of being Katniss's sister, she'd gotten really good in reading her little sister's emotions.

"Well, well," Haymitch sneered back, smirking at both of them. "The cat's out of the bag, then. Do sit down, both of you."

"Thanks, but no," Katniss said. The younger girl trembled. This was one of those moments when she was really angry. There wasn't a single moment of any day that Katniss didn't remind Johanna of their Pa - but right now, Johanna couldn't feel closer to her Pa, for Katniss was totally channeling him. "There is something this important, and you don't let us know. What do you want?"

There was no answer. Again, Johanna was reminded of that saying about women's power over men. The looks on their faces were so comical she'd almost laughed - had she not been too angry about this dirty little secret of theirs.

"For us to sit out of it, of course," she answered her sister instead, glancing at the younger girl. "General consensus is that we're not good for anything, because we lack a certain appendage. Well, except maybe for cuddling. Or touching."

"Guys," Thom started, in an attempt to dissolve the situation. "Haymitch and your boyfriends just want to protect you. Really. It's not that we don't think you're incapable."

"Very funny," Johanna sneered, her eyes darting back to the five guilty men in front of them. "What makes you think you don't need protection, you stupid creatures? My sister and I have protected some of you before, right? Peeta? Gale? Don't you boys have anything to say?"

No one said a word. Even the apparently silver-tongued Peeta Mellark.

"Alright, Doll," Haymitch finally said, looking tiredly at her. "What do you actually want?"

"She wants you to involve us in whatever this is," Katniss answered for them, sounding weary yet firm. "And I do, too."

And so it was decided. From the on, they were in the meetings, greedily taking everything in and piping in - more like barging in - with their opinions.

* * *

Reaping day morning found the four Victors of District Twelve and their training Drill Sergeant in the kitchen of Haymitch's house, having their last technical meeting.

"Caroline's your runner," Gale said, looking up at them from the gigantic potential tributes' statistics map they had laid on the table. "And one of Haymitch, Chaff, and Finnick should lead the mission, if they're in. Otherwise, whichever two of you who are in should take the lead. Don't leave District Three or Six alone; they're the most likely to die."

"Stop being such a Structure Freak," Johanna scolded him, rolling her eyes. "Once it rolls in, I'm sure no one will remember their role."

"That's what you all need to work on," he glared at her, his face stoic and serious. "Focus. You don't get second chances in the Arena."

"You've never been in there, so shut up," Johanna shot back, glaring at her boyfriend. As much as she loved him, she found him being a Drill Sergeant irritating.

"Give it a break, you Lovebirds," Haymitch scolded them, looking warily at them. "You should be spending these last few hours cuddling and saying how much love each other, not quarreling. Lord knows if you'll see each other again after this."

"Stop it, Haymitch," Katniss warned the older mentor, looking at him warily. "My sister's getting back home here. I'll make sure she will."

"No," Johanna snapped, irritated. "My sister is getting back home here. Don't stand in my way."

"Great," Haymitch complained, taking a swig from his bottle. "Now you girls are on it too. Loverboy, why haven't you said anything? You're not usually known for being quiet."

Peeta, who were just sitting there smiling, chuckled.

"I'm just enjoying our morning," he reasoned, still with his smile. "I think I'll miss this when I'm in the Arena."

The blue-eyed boy might or might not have to dodge two different pens and avoid two different angry glares.

The meeting was called off shortly afterwards, and she found herself marching home with Gale in tow. They were still annoyed at each other and weren't talking, but she relented nevertheless when he started kissing her and pinning her against the wall.

She had an impression Gale actually liked it when she stood up against him, though she knew he wouldn't tell anyone in a million years.

He helped her getting ready once she'd showered. Zipping up her dress - the one from last year's reaping -, fastening her necklace, braiding her hair. When they were ready, he let her lead him downstairs to the kitchen, where Prim and her mother, and also Katniss and Peeta, had been waiting.

"Any news on the reaping?" Gale asked immediately.

"That brother-sister pair from One, Cashmere and Gloss," Peeta answered, looking sad and somber. "Brutus and Enobaria from Two. Beetee and Wiress - Volts and Nuts. Finnick. Annie Cresta. Five, Six, Seven, and Eight haven't been aired. We've got a message from Seven that it's the Mason siblings for them, though. Nine, Ten, and Eleven will be just before ours."

"Fuck," Johanna muttered, as she sank down to an empty chair. Her mother gave her a disapproving look, but she couldn't care less. Annie Cresta was going back to the arena. With Finnick. Both of them would be absolute messes.

"I know," Katniss replied warily from across the table. The middle sister had Prim on her lap, practically. Their baby sister had been understandably clingy these past few days.

"Can I sit on your lap too, Jo?" the young girl asked, upon catching Johanna's eyes.

"I guess you can," Johanna answered, straightening her back up. She didn't completely like the idea - the girl was thirteen, and was bigger than both her and Katniss already - but she knew it could be the last time she saw her baby sister. A plan was a plan, but the Arena and the Careers were other things.

Prim stood up and crossed to the other side. Slowly, she plopped down on Johanna's lap. Johanna locked her arms around the girl's middle instinctively. It wasn't necessary, for Prim's feet were on the ground, but that was what her Pa had taught her to do, back when she was seven and Prim was a toddler sitting on her lap.

"Support her middle. She needs you to keep her from falling."

Hell, how she wished he was here right now.

Her mother, Prim, and Gale walked all of them Victors, including Haymitch, to the Justice Building. Her boyfriend twitched a bit as they got there; she just took his hand and squeezed it in reassurance. The last time they were around this area, he was tied up on a post and getting whipped, thanks to her moment of arrogance and stupidity.

Her mother gave each of them - again, Haymitch included - a hug, and so did Prim. The rest of the Careers were there too, with Peeta's father and eldest brother in tow. They each gave the Victors hugs. Everyone was quiet. Not in a somber way, but in an uneasy, dangerous way.

"Good luck," Wheaton told them as he led the rest of the Careers off to the audience, giving his little brother one last pat on the shoulder. His father and older brother followed suit soon, flanking Johanna's teary, spaced out mother. For once, Johanna actually felt sorry for the woman. She didn't know a single thing about their plan, and for all she knew, she was definitely losing a daughter that day.

(Years later, when she'd had her own daughters, she would regret, every day, not telling her mother about their plan, as she realized how devastating that feeling was.)

"Come back here, won't you?" Prim whispered, as she went on another round of hugs. "All of you."

"We'll try, Little One," Haymitch answered for them, patting the youngest Everdeen's blonde head. "Watch your back too."

Prim gave him a wide smile, and with pangs of joy and sadness, Johanna thought of the two father figures she and her sisters had had so far: her Pa, and her mentor Haymitch. The two people with whom she'd felt sheltered and safe.

A swish of two blonde braids, and the Little One Primrose Everdeen was gone. Now, there were only the four Victors and their Drill Sergeant, whose eyes were fixed on his girlfriend.

"I guess this is goodbye then," he said, trying hard not to show any emotion. "Focus."

He clapped the men on the back and hugged Katniss. When Johanna's turn came, though, he brought his lips to hers in an open, chaste kiss, and took her into his arms as if that would be their last goodbye.

"Do whatever you need to do," he whispered to her, planting another kiss on her temple. "I'll see you at the other end."

And the hour rolled in. She freed herself from the embrace and slipped under the rope, looking at him one last time before Effie reached the stage.

"Hold my hand," she ordered her little sister, who stood next to her stealing glances at Peeta.

"What?" Katniss asked her, confused.

"Just hold my hand," she simply told the younger girl, holding out a hand. It was actually a plea rather than an order; she didn't think she could do this alone. She needed her Kitty.

It took a second or two, but Katniss finally grasped the offered hand. Johanna squeezed her sister's hand and felt its warmth. It was her only anchor to reality as of now, as her brain screamed in her head.

The usual fanfare went, and the entire time, Johanna was somewhere in her own mind. The next thing she remembered watching was Effie's hand, reaching into the female reaping bowl.

"Katniss Everdeen!"

That was it. She wasn't going back to the arena, but her sister was.

She stood there alone, looking at her staunch, determined sister on the stage. They both knew who the male tribute would be. This was the ultimate punishment for Katniss.

"Peeta Mellark!"

And yes, they were always right.

They stashed her into a car, and just a minute later, threw Katniss into the same car. There wasn't even time to say goodbye to their loved ones. They sat there in a painful silence, as their car rolled out to the station, behind the other car occupied by Haymitch and Peeta.

"You ready?" Katniss asked quietly, as the station's silhouette started appearing in their horizon.

"Hell yeah," she answered, once again lying to keep her little sister happy and safe.

* * *

**Katniss**

It was late at night, and a summer storm was whipping outside the train, but with her Boy with the Bread next to her, she wasn't really scared of anything.

...Well, lies. She was still anxious about their plan, about what they would do in the Arena, about whether they would have to kill some others in their conquest to free themselves, about the uncertainty of the future. But the peace and calm he brought with him whenever he was around made all of those less important, and less present at the time being. It was only him, her, a dim night light, and this sleeping compartment. Which was officially his, but smelt like both him and her at the time being.

"Katniss?"

"Huh?"

"Can you sleep?"

She looked up at him - and met his wide-open blue eyes.

"Nope," she answered in all honesty. They'd been watching past Games's tapes before they went to bed - the last one being the 70th, which ended with poor Annie Cresta swimming through flood water and hanging onto dead bodies, wide-eyed and screaming.

"I can't, too," Peeta admitted, shifting a bit on the bed. "Wanna go get some hot chocolate?"

"I don't think I can stomach anything," she admitted honestly. "Still thinking of that boy from Four getting beheaded."

"Can't get that out of my head too," Peeta commented, smiling sadly. "Imagine how it must have been like for Annie."

"I know," Katniss agreed. For the first time in the five years that had passed since that particular Games, she'd realized the extent of the trauma Annie went through. She didn't know if she would go unhinged, too, had she been in Annie's position, but she knew some people who would. Prim. Delly.

Annie Cresta must have been a kind and gentle girl before her games.

"Wanna keep going on watching?" Peeta offered, sitting up. "We have the 72nd up next."

"Why not 71st?" Katniss asked.

Peeta chuckled.

"I believe we've both memorized that by heart," he answered. "I remember standing on the front row with you those last few days when Johanna showed them who... uh, who was the boss."

"You were there?" Katniss asked, surprised. She didn't remember seeing him there.

"Yeah," he responded, smiling sadly at her. "You were kind of zoned out, so I doubt you'd remember that, but I stood beside you the day she won."

Katniss sat up and pulled her knees to her chest.

"For all I knew, my sister was about to die," she explained to him, though she doubt she'd need to. "I didn't have time to look around."

"Figured that out," he commented. He circled an arm around her and rubbed her bare upper arm comfortingly. "You love them so fiercely. Your sisters."

She wanted to tell him that she loved him even more fiercely, but it just didn't come out. So, she just did what she knew she could - pressing her lips on his.

They didn't end up watching more Games that night; they made a young, naive, sweet love.

* * *

The two of them - plus a hungover Haymitch, a somewhat-amused Effie, and a bored Johanna - managed to finish watching the 72nd Games before they rolled in to the Capitol the next morning.

"Have you been sleeping?" Cinna asked her as they saw each other again inside the prep center.

"A little bit," Katniss answered honestly, yawning. Between Peeta and the Games tapes, she didn't really have much sleeping time.

"Try to get some more," the stylist told her as he set to work doing her make up. "You'll need that for the Arena. Rumour has it that Seneca's Arena last year was nothing compared to the one Plutarch has for this year."

"I'll try," Katniss responded. "What happened to Seneca, actually? Did he resign?"

Cinna stopped working. Katniss looked up at her stylist, and saw a strange turmoil in his usually calm face.

"He just disappeared," he finally answered, picking up another brush from the collection. "Hasn't been seen since the end of the 74th. Rumour has it that he committed suicide, but no one has ever found his body."

"I hope that's not because of me," Katniss said, a sudden guilt rushing through her.

"It's not you," Cinna comforted, placing a hand on her shoulder. "If anything, you gave him his best Games to date."

When her face and hair were done, and her tribute parade suit - which had these little lights in fire colour - was on, she went down to the barn to meet Peeta. This year, Cinna wouldn't be coming down there with her, for he had 'some things to discuss with Haymitch and Johanna' before the parade started. Portia - who was again Peeta's stylist - would supposedly be there, but when Katniss got down there, they'd kicked all the stylists out. All Katniss had waiting for her was Peeta and some of their allies for the Games.

...Namely a near-naked Finnick Odair and a slightly more covered but still near-naked Annie Cresta. The theme of their costume this year seemed to be fishnets - and that was all they wore. It was knotted over their crotches and over Annie's breasts, but still, they were fishnets. Golden fishnets.

"Hello, Little E.," Finnick greeted her, holding out a sugar cube container with his free arm - the other one was around Annie's delicate, bare shoulders. "Sugar cubes?"

"N... no, thanks," Katniss stuttered out. Her mother would be upset at her for being so rude, but she couldn't help herself from turning away from the scantily-clad couple. The only people she didn't mind seeing naked were her sisters. And Peeta.

"Katniss," Peeta nudged her, something which looked like a restrained laughter on his face. "This is Annie."

She gave him a glare, unhappy that he'd made her turn back to face the couple. But she did nevertheless, and felt grateful. Now that she'd gotten over the initial shock - sort of - she could better see the loving, perfect couple in front of her. The protective, handsome Finnick Odair, and the gentle, beautiful Annie Cresta.

"Hi," she said, holding out a hand for the girl - the woman - to shake. "I'm Katniss."

"Annie," the green-eyed young lady replied with a small, demure smile. "Sorry I didn't come to see you when you visited Four, I wasn't... I wasn't feeling well."

"That's okay," Katniss reassured her. She couldn't help but feeling the need to protect this woman. Annie reminded her of Prim, of her gentle baby sister. "We've met now, right?"

Annie chuckled - giggled, actually - and beamed at her.

Finnick went around and introduced - or re-introduced - them to the rest of their alliance. Beetee and Wiress, a.k.a Volts and Nuts, from Three. Two dazed, elderly tributes from Six - Finnick whisperingly called them 'Morphlings' afterwards. Cecelia, that woman from Eight who'd had to detach herself from her three small children during the reaping, and her elderly, deaf district partner Woof. Chaff, the Victor from Eleven who'd lost a hand in his Games, and his district partner Seeder. They passed everyone else in the process - One, Two, Five, Nine, Ten. The room was chatty, for most of the older Victors knew each other, but at the same time thick with tension as they knew what was going to happen in a week or so.

"Where's District Seven?" Katniss asked her companions, as she realized they hadn't seen the Mason siblings.

"Didn't you hear that?" Annie asked her, surprised. "Their stylists had to re-do their costumes."

"What happened?" she asked again.

As if the question itself was funny, her three companions started laughing.

"You must be too far away from their dressing room to hear Big Mason's diva meltdown," Finnick explained, after the laughter died down. "He literally tore down his costume to shreds."

Having met Ash Mason, Katniss knew how violent and reckless the man could be, but nevertheless, she still scowled.

"That's not nice of him," she commented. "His stylist must have been working hard for it."

"Well," Finnick said, looking at her. "Have you been paying attention to Seven's tribute parade costumes in your lifetime?"

Katniss thought it out, and just then, it hit her. Seven's costumes never changed; they'd always been dressed as trees.

"I think their stylist keeps using the same costumes throughout the years," Peeta chimed in, kindly but honestly. "Ash's being ridiculous, but I think I understand his frustration."

"Speak of the devil," Finnick whispered, as the door creaked open again.

Revealing, another set of near-naked tributes for the night.

"Oh my," she muttered, quickly turning away. If she thought Annie and Finnick's fishnets were a bit much, then Ash and Caroline's naked, green-and-brown painted bodies were definitely too much.

"Not here, you perv!" she heard Ash scolding someone - most likely that man from Two, Brutus, who was staring openly at Caroline. "That's my sister!"

Finnick, Peeta, and Annie all chuckled, but all she could do was rolling her eyes. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Ash was just actually a male version of her older sister in personality. Not an exact version, but similar enough to be eerie at times. Like her and Gale.

'All tributes, to your positions, please.'

That was it. With a quick goodbye to Finnick and Annie, she took Peeta's hand and climbed onto her chariot, pressing that one button inside her wrist which lit up the lights on her costume.

* * *

The parade went without a glitch, and so did the next few days of training sessions. Katniss must say it was pretty interesting, though, and pretty annoying at the same time. Having known her aversion to nakedness, her allies from Four and Seven deliberately turned up naked - or semi naked. Finnick and Ash trained shirtless - and at one point managed to get Peeta to go shirtless with them, giving Katniss some inappropriate thoughts and the reddest face of the century. Caroline turned up in short shorts and a crop top, which was also low-cut the top of her breasts were literally hanging out. The only sane person of this group of youngsters was Annie, who would turn up in some kind of leggings and a tank top. She was also the easiest one to talk to - whenever she wasn't having a mental relapse and starting to cover her ears and close her eyes.

Lunch was different to what they had last year; not in terms of food and set up, but in that they actually talked to others like friends. Districts One and Two were perhaps the only tributes Katniss didn't talk to - partially by her own choice, and partially due to the animosity between them and Johanna's group of friends. The only awkward moment she'd had was when Chaff, Haymitch's friend and male tribute from Eleven, suddenly came over and kissed her. It became apparent that it was yet another attempt in teasing, though, and the fact that Peeta just laughed it off made it easier for Katniss to forget the thing.

Before they knew, individual training session was coming. Unlike last year, though, when Peeta spent the morning with Johanna and Katniss with Haymitch, they decided to swap mentors. It ended up being such a blessing for Katniss. These past few months, she hadn't had much chance to really talk to her sister. They were both busy with their relationships, and whenever they had the chance to talk, there were always other people in the scene.

"What kind of drama are you going to cause this year?" Johanna asked, as they settled down in this strange room with a giant screen and some kind of machine under it.

"I don't really know," Katniss answered honestly. "Maybe I'll just shoot at the targets this year."

"Really?" Johanna asked her, tilting her head with interest. "You, Katniss Everdeen, not causing havoc? Is the world going crazy or something?"

"It is," Katniss responded, smiling tiredly at her sister. "I don't know what's going on anymore."

"Brainless," her sister commented, smirking. "Focus. You don't get second chances in the Arena."

"Geez, Jo. You already sound like Gale."

"And you already sound like Loverboy, so just shut up."

They both laughed as they realized how their boyfriends' mannerisms started blending into theirs.

"How is he with you?" Katniss asked.

"Aggressive, dominant, but pretty good. How is Loverboy with you?"

She wanted to curse her sister for returning the question. It wasn't something she thought about a lot; he just fit nicely into her life and she assumed she did to his life.

"Perfect, I guess," she answered eventually, for no other word can describe it.

"Shit, Brainless. That's vomit-worthy," Johanna responded, faking a gag onto the floor.

"Well, you asked," Katniss justified, sticking out her tongue at her sister.

"Blame yourself, Brainless," Johanna shot back, sticking out her tongue in response. "You asked me first."

"I was worried, alright?" Katniss said, scowling at her sister. "I know Gale so well. I know how he can be sometimes."

"How?" Johanna challenged her, scowling back.

"Ruthless," Katniss listed, "self-centered. Angry."

She paused for a bit and took a deep breath, before asking her sister, "how is he in bed?"

Johanna's mouth fell open. Katniss watched amusedly - and annoyedly - as her sister made this comical face she'd never seen before.

"Kitty Kat's getting dirty!" Johanna exclaimed a few seconds later, doing a ridiculous victory dance Katniss hadn't seen since they were just little girls. "Kitty Kat's getting soooo dirtyyyyy...!"

"That's not what I meant!" Katniss hissed, forcefully grabbing Johanna back onto the couch. "I want to know how is he treating you in bed!"

"Oh," Johanna responded. Katniss watched her sister's face falling, turning into this cold, stony facade. "Is that because of my history?"

She turned away, for she couldn't answer that.

"Answer me," her sister commandeered coldly.

"Yes, Jo," she finally answered, tearing up for some reason she didn't understand. "You've been hurt before. I don't want anyone to ever hurt you again."

She was expecting some outburst, but instead, her sister teared up with her.

"Damn you, Kitty Kat," Johanna said a few seconds later. "Why do you have to be so sappy?"

"Wouldn't you do the same for me?" Katniss asked back.

Johanna sighed. Then, something rare happened. She smiled. Not a small smile, not a sneer, not a smirk, but a full-blown, dreamy smile.

"He's been good to me, if you really need to know," she told Katniss softly. "I... I'm still too broken in the head to do it. He's being really patient."

"He must really love you," Katniss responded softly. "He's one of the most impatient people I know."

"I know."

They sat in silence for a bit. Then, Johanna tilted her head and asked, "how do you feel about this circus?"

"I hate it," Katniss admitted, her internal fire flickering as she thought of Snow and his evil ways. "I don't want any of these."

"I'd rather have you out of here, too," her big sister consoled, patting her on the head. "Nothing stands between me and getting you out of here, so don't you worry."

"Promise me something," Katniss told her sister.

"Promise you what?" Johanna challenged.

"Promise me that you will never ever pawn yourself off to the Gamemakers again. Or to anyone."

"Even if it would bring you back from death?" Johanna sneered.

"Even if it would bring me back from death," Katniss answered firmly.

This was about the end of their training session, for it all got too sentimental and Johanna decided to call it quits soon afterwards. They ended up using the machine and the screen to do some crazy sing-along type of thing, which was apparently a favourite pastime of Ash Mason.

* * *

**Johanna**

"Brilliant," she said, half proudly and half desperately. "Really brilliant, Brainless. First shooting at their pig. Then hanging a Seneca Crane dummy. What were you trying to score? A twelve?"

Katniss lifted her head up for a second, scowled at her, then buried her head back onto the cushion.

"You too," Johanna continued, turning to Peeta, who sat there with his head hung. "Drawing your dead ally on the floor. Were you trying to up her?"

"Doll, enough," Haymitch said warily, his eyes fixed not on them but on the glass of unidentifiable stuff on the side table. He'd drank several glasses of the thing since Katniss and Peeta announced what they did for the individual trainings. It wasn't enough to knock him out, thanks to his years of practice, but Johanna knew it was enough to calm him down. What their mentees were doing was shocking. And worrying.

"I'm done with you maniacs," she said tiredly, throwing herself onto the only empty seat. "Don't talk to me, unless you score a twelve."

Time passed in silence, as she cradled her head in her hands, thinking of all that might happen now that her sister had once again been a brainless danger magnet. The fact that Peeta, sensible, careful Peeta, had decided to join Katniss in her conquest of being headhunted by the tools from One and Two made everything worse for her. It was so much she was physically having a headache.

Sure, she was a rebel, and she liked it when her sister rebelled, but if she had a choice, she would rather her sister be alive.

"You three," Haymitch said, some time later. "Get out of your flunk. They're airing it soon."

Johanna lifted her head up just in time for Effie, the stylists, and the prep team to join them. No one asked question - perhaps they all looked shitty enough for them to realize how much Katniss and Peeta fucked up.

"Here we go," she said to herself, once the commentaries began. "May the odds be ever in your favour."

Nines and tens for the Careers from One and Two. Sixes for Nuts and Volts, each. A suspicious eight for Annie. An eleven for Finnick. An eight for Caroline. A ten for Ash. Seven for Cecelia, three for poor old Woof. Eight for Chaff, Seven for Seeder.

And a twelve each for Katniss and Peeta.

As she closed her eyes, she could picture Queen Cashmere, Gloss, Brutus, Enobaria, and the six other tributes they didn't manage to loop in running after the two, desperate in their conquest to get out alive.

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for reading everyone! I'll see you later this week (most probably Thursday/Wednesday) with the next chapter, which covers the interviews and two-thirds of the Quell. Till then, have a nice week! :)


	18. Chapter 19: The Game

**AN: **Hello again! Thanks for reading everyone. Welcome to my new follower Jga. Thanks to Ripe for putting this story in favourite list, and special thanks to ellie82, jc52185, Norbert's Mom, "Guest", and axes tridents and snares for their reviews. You guys, all of you, kept me going and brightened up my day.

Alright. So we've gotten to the Quarter Quell. I've decided not to diverge too much from the events of the Quarter Quell in Catching Fire, for I feel that whatever happened in the Arena and its aftermath in the books clearly revealed some people's motivation. I'm focusing instead on the stories behind and people's motivations, and adjust the storyline a bit to reflect the fact that we have a slightly different tributes' composition here. Anyway, hope you all enjoy the story!

**Disclaimer: **The Hunger Games trilogy and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. And so does the idea of Quarter Quell, and all the settings, and Panem and its dystopia. I'm just borrowing them. I have two (minor) O.C.s here, and they are in the arena. Should be easily spottable, and they belong to me.

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen: The Game**

**Johanna**

Queen Cashmere was really annoying in her interview - and her crying was almost unbearable - but the fact that she openly stated her disagreement towards the Quarter Quell somehow made up for most of it. Her brother Gloss was so sweet and sad, and Johanna would have hugged him had he not been The Pleasure Squad Queen's brother and had he not treated her like that those few times they were hired together.

District Two were as stupid as ever, and she couldn't care less about them. Nuts and Volts were both subtle and smart because they were, oh well, Nuts and Volts.

Her favourite best friend Finnick tugged her heartstrings - surprisingly - when he read a sweet poem for his One True Love, but the reactions of all those ladies in the audience outweighed the real thing her stomach felt queasy afterwards. Annie was somewhat out and somewhat lucid for the interview. Johanna sat there feeling sorry for the fragile young woman, until Annie suddenly said how wrong it was to let siblings go to the Quell together. With a numbing pang of pain, Johanna recalled that Annie's district partner was her younger cousin who, according to Finnick, was 'as good as a little brother' to her.

District Five interviewed like they would another Games. The freaks from District Six - or the 'Morphlings', like other Victors liked to say - were obviously a bit high and continued saying random things, to Johanna's secret hilarity.

Caroline took the stage smiling and waving like the well-trained pageant contestant she'd like to emulate. She shed a little bit of that happy-go-lucky layer and went all serious when she made a point about 'the unbreakable bond between Capitol and its Victors'. Johanna knew Caroline well enough to be able to tell the girl was actually trolling. Thus when it came the time to applaud her friend, she gave the younger girl a standing applause.

Ash was brooding like usual, and from get go, he let his refreshing honesty took over. He said out loud that Caesar's hair colour was ridiculous and made some veiled sarcastic comments of what some previous tributes had said. To top it all, he questioned whether it had actually been possible to skip this Quell idea because that mysterious appeal of not knowing each tribute's potentials was gone in this one. This question was later reiterated by Chaff and Seeder from Eleven, in slightly different ways. They'd asked whether Snow couldn't really change the Quell. Johanna knew it was another rhetorical question; Snow could definitely change everything. If he could order for a lot of people to be killed, what couldn't he do?

Katniss took stage in a white, simple dress and minimal make up. The nervousness of last year was gone, the girl on stage was firm and confident.

"So, Katniss," Caesar asked, "how do you feel about being back here?"

"Glad," Katniss answered, without a smile or a scowl. "Because it means I won't have to make that difficult choice between my sister and Peeta."

"Will you work with Peeta on his victory, like you did last year?" Caesar probed.

"I will," Katniss responded. She threw a look at the other tributes on the stage, and bowed her head a bit, before continuing, "it would be hard, because most of these other Victor tributes have become my friends, and I know they all have reasons to go home. Everyone deserves to win and go home to their loved ones. So, if you'll allow multiple Victors - two, four, eight, sixteen - it would be really great."

"Katniss," Caesar said, sympathetic but worried. "I understand the bond you've formed with with the other wonderful people here. But sixteen Victors is impossible - two is even nearly impossible. Will you still work with others towards their victories?"

Katniss lifted her head and spoke firmly, "I will. And I will make sure it happens."

Johanna watched in silence, as her little sister stood up and lifted a hand over her head like last year. She held her breath in as Katniss started twirling and twirling, like that little girl who'd played with her in the Meadow when they were little. She couldn't help but shooting Cinna a look when Katniss's simple dress slowly transformed to a feathered, elaborate, winged black one.

The daring stylist had turned her sister into a Mockingjay.

The crowd went wild cheering and clapping, but Johanna couldn't join them. She was torn between feeling a pride for her sister, and fearing for Katniss's life. For the hundredth time, she wished she'd died in her Games instead. Her little sister wouldn't have been here if she hadn't won her Games then...

"Doll, let go."

Turning to Haymitch, who sat next to her, she saw that somber, sad look on her mentor's face. Haymitch was the only person who'd seen her like this; who'd ever heard her regretting. To the world, Johanna Everdeen was invincible and gutsy. A ruthless, cold girl of a Victor.

She let go. Not exactly, but she tried to.

She watched on as Peeta took the stage afterwards, in a simple suit that matched Katniss's dress pre-transformation. She had no idea what Haymitch prepared for the boy, but from what it looked, Peeta was using last year's approach of being his likeable self. He bantered with Caesar and made his self-deprecating jokes which amused the crowd.

What else his silver tongue delivered during the interview, though, was something Johanna would never predict.

The boy told the world of how he'd adored Johanna's little sister Katniss since they were five years old. He spoke of the red plait dress and the two dark braids, and the magical little voice which sang The Valley Song.

And then he spoke of their secret toasting, which happened some months earlier in District Twelve.

The toasting which Johanna knew nothing about.

The fact that it garnered the audience's sympathy, and that afterwards everyone on stage joined hands, suddenly became so unimportant for her. As soon as she was allowed out of her seat, Johanna bolted back up to level twelve and punched the boy on the face.

"SON OF BITCH! SHE HAS A FAMILY, YOU FILTHY THIEF!"

* * *

**Katniss**

This wasn't how she imagined what could probably be her last night in the world to be.

She didn't mind Effie and the prep teams looking at her with pity. It was all okay with her. Haymitch's disappointed look made her sad, but she could bear with it. Johanna not talking to them and punching Peeta on the face... now, that was something she almost couldn't bear with.

As soon as her sister left with that one last cold hug, she pulled Peeta into her room and locked them in. She lasted a second or two, before the restrained tears began streaming down her face.

"Ssh, Katniss," Peeta whispered to her as he took her into his arms. "Please stop. It's all my fault. I'm sorry."

"She won't talk to me, Peeta," she said quietly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "My sister won't talk to me."

"She still loves you," Peeta tried to justify, stroking her hair. "I guess she's just upset because she thinks you - we - are hiding it from her. She'll come to terms soon."

"But I might never see her again."

That silenced Peeta.

"Katniss," he said, a minute or two later. "No one knows what's gonna happen tomorrow. But when I still can, I'll do everything in my power to get you back home to Johanna and Prim. To your family."

"But it can't be," Katniss responded in agony. "Finnick, Annie, Ash, Caroline, Beetee, Wiress, Cecelia, Woof, Chaff, Seeder, the Morphlings... We can't let them die. Peeta, we can't let them die."

"I know," Peeta acknowledged, pressing a kiss on her temple. "But if, like Gale said, we can't save everyone... then I'll make sure you come first."

"But it's unfair," she argued. "It's unfair. I don't have more at stake than they do. It's unfair."

"I know," he said, looking sadly at her. "But you come first. No matter what happens."

He held her as she calmed down and composed herself back. Once the world came back to her, she noticed the red blotch on the left side of his face and got up. She poured some of the iced water provided in her night jug on a hand towel, and pressed it against the mark Johanna's fist made on his face.

"There's only one other person she'd ever punched like that," Katniss said, smiling defeatedly as Peeta winced.

"Who?" he asked her, chuckling.

"Gale. They were in fourth year of lower school, and he couldn't quit insulting her, so she blew up on him."

"Do you think I'll have a nasty bruise tomorrow?" Peeta asked again, looking both humoured and terrified. "On my pretty face?"

She laughed, thanks to Peeta's impersonation of their new friend Finnick and her memory of Gale Hawthorne's face those weeks after Johanna's deadly punch.

"Gale had a black eye for a week," she answered, once the laughter stopped. "Johanna wore it like a badge of honour."

He laughed, and his laughter was infectious she laughed again alongside him.

"Stay with me?" she asked him afterwards.

"Always," he answered, smiling.

"Tonight, I mean," she added on with a small smile she reserved just for him.

"Of course," he responded, kissing her on the top of her head.

She blushed like mad, but was secretly delighted, when Portia and her friend - who subbed for an unwell Cinna - found them in a compromising position the next morning, their clothes pooled on the floor.

* * *

**Johanna**

"Happy you punched him?" Haymitch asked her.

Johanna ignored him, and continued staring to the distance.

They were sitting together in a park not far away from the Mentors' Viewing Centre, at the shadier part of Capitol. This place was pretty much forgotten, and most Capitolites would avoid it like a plague. Apparently it was the hangout of what were the likings to the Morphlings and the people who would sell them the stuff, and Capitolites who went broke and were actually as screwed as people at the Seam. If it was up to Johanna, she wouldn't be there right now, at three in the morning, the day of the Quarter Quell. But this was their agreed meeting place with Plutarch, and thus here they were._  
_

There were only the two of them that morning, for they were the appointed leaders of the Rebel Mentors. Blight from Seven and Mags from Four had actually wanted to tag along, but he was known for being tardy, unreliable, and unbelievably absent-minded at times, and she was a little on the old side they were afraid she wouldn't be able to defend herself should anything happen. Thus, with a promise that they would too negotiate for Ash, Caroline, Finnick, and Annie's best interests, Johanna and Haymitch left the two behind.

"Right behind you," Haymitch whispered.

It was actually not necessary, for Johanna had heard _him_ coming. Plutarch Heavensbee had what could be described as the opposite of Gale and Katniss's enviable Hunters' Feet.

"You're at least half an hour late, Gamemaker," she greeted him with a sneer. "That nice watch of yours must have been wrong."

"Prior meeting overran," the man replied, looking at Haymitch instead of her. "My apologies."

"Didn't know your meetings run until two in the morning," Haymitch commented, clearly not buying the reason.

"Emergency meeting," Plutarch explained. "Looked like someone's been sniffing our original plan."

"Fuck," Johanna muttered under her breath, tilting her hip to lean against the pole near her for she felt her legs swaying a bit. From her perch, she could see Haymitch tensing, clearly not liking what he'd just heard too.

"At this rate," Plutarch continued, clearly ignoring Johanna's panic and Haymitch's stress, "we're guaranteed to get busted before we get there. Unless we switch to plan F."

"Fuck this, Plutarch," Johanna hissed under her breath. "What the..."

Haymitch shot her a warning glare, and Johanna shrunk back. The world caved in a bit in her head. Plan F was their absolute last resort, and like its name, would most likely fail big time. Under Plan F, everyone was basically thrown back into a full Games, with all the traps and the long days of starvation, until the Capitol was fooled enough and they could arrange a rescue hovercraft from Thirteen to pick the _survivors_ up and open up the Force Field surrounding the arena.

"I've told you not to endanger _my _kids, Plutarch," Haymitch snarled, clearly as disappointed as Johanna was. "What are you going to do about this?"

"I'm afraid I can't do much more, Haymitch," Plutarch responded in a sympathetic voice Johanna knew was most probably faked. "I've arranged for the appropriate hints to be left, though, so I hope they all would know what to do. Now, excuse me, but I am expected in Main Control bright eyed and bushy tailed in just under four hours."

With that, he walked away just like that.

* * *

She kept quiet most of their journey back to the Mentors' Viewing Center, and straight away went to her room - just in time for her self control to give up.

She didn't know when she started crying, or why exactly, but when she got out of her bed and stood in front of the mirror to brush her hair - now reaching down the bottom of her shoulder blades - she was greeted by a blotchy red face and a pair of swollen, red eyes.

In her own brash, honest words, she looked like shit.

She was obviously the worst person in the whole world, but she was glad that Queen Cashmere was down in the Arena, as she walked into the Viewing Room with her oversized sunglass on. This year, she was the last one in; everyone else had taken their positions. Including Blight from Seven, who didn't turn up until midday the year of Caroline's Games - and apparently the year of Ash's Games, too, from Haymitch's story.

"Glare problem, Doll?" Haymitch asked sneeringly as she sat next to him. He looked downright tired and shattered. He'd volunteered to convey the bad news to the other Rebel Mentors, and must have taken quite a few blows for that.

"You know I've never liked these bright lights, Old Man," she answered without turning to him. She decided he was sad enough already, without having to see that she'd been crying. Though the man had never said anything, Johanna knew she and her sister - and Peeta - were practically his children.

Minutes passed without any conversations or attempt on them. She knew how devastating it was for most mentors - these tributes were fellow Victors, the friends they'd grown to know and love. Seeing them killing each other would be unsavoury.

She held her breath, and switched into mentor mode, as the Arena appeared on the screen. Her initial thought, as they showed the top-view of it, was Finnick. The Arena looked like it was designed for Finnick Odair, with lots of water and the Cornucopia in the middle of it.

But then she noted the size of the Arena, and started cursing for it was seriously small. As in, so small a daily run-in with the Careers was guaranteed.

"Here's the Top Seed list, Doll," Haymitch said next to her, pointing on his screen. She turned to it, and saw Finnick on the top, followed by District Two's Brutus and Enobaria, Katniss, and Ash. She snorted, as she imagined the fit Ash would have had he known Katniss had beaten him in popularity. It was no secret that her friend was a little wary of her sister - and that the feeling was somewhat mutual.

"Yes, funny, Johanna," Haymitch chided her, switching his screen back to the Cornucopia. "Trying to share sponsorship funds with Two, Four, and Seven. What a joy."

Of course. How the heck she'd forgotten that their alliance was secret? That to the world, her friends were now her enemies in her conquest to bring her sister home?

It took longer than usual, but all the tributes finally appeared on their plates. She watched the close-ups of their faces intently, sussing out who would triumph and who was screwed.

One and Two looked pretty screwed, to her open delight.

Nuts and Volts seemed to know something, for she could see that 'a-ha' glint in their eyes.

Finnick looked right at home. Annie looked slightly less so, but more alert than usual - in a good way.

Five looked intrigued.

The Morphlings were as dazed like usual. Johanna crossed her fingers that they wouldn't fall into the water before the sixty seconds ended.

Ash sneered like the jerk he was. Caroline was wide-eyed, as much as it was possible with her already wide-set eyes. Her eyes moved rapidly between tribute plates, and Johanna knew their escape was definitely going as planned in Plan F... so far.

Woof looked clueless like ever, but Cecelia looked stressed and teary. Johanna wondered if the feeling she had during her own Games, when she went in not knowing if she would come back to Katniss and Prim, was the same as what Cecelia was having. The woman left three children behind in her district. Three children they were in the process of smuggling out of the district right now, with the help of the District Eight rebels.

Nine and Ten were intrigued, though not as intrigued as Five.

Chaff looked relaxed. He stood tall with his arms on his sides, head up towards the sky, like the warrior he'd always been. Seeder was more alert and focused, eyeing the Cornucopia and the other tributes, as if calculating her next move.

Johanna couldn't help but feeling the guilt from the outburst she had last night, as Peeta's face appeared on the screen. His prep team didn't fully cover the bruising of his face - Johanna wondered if the boy himself had requested so. It looked pretty bad. She had definitely overreacted over something actually unimportant. Now that she'd thought about it, she realized she should've been happy - for him, for her sister. If she couldn't be selfless, at least she could tone down the selfishness. She didn't own Katniss. The girl owned her own choices and destiny.

But the Peeta scanned the water in panic, and all her self-sabotaging was forgotten. With this coldness in her legs, she realized he wasn't at all a good swimmer.

"Fuck," Johanna cursed under her breath, resting her forehead on her monitor. "Fuck, fuck."

Peeta Mellark wasn't allowed to drown. At all. Even if he was an inconsiderate fool who'd just snatched her sister from under her nose like that, without permission. Her sister wasn't going to lose a husband. Not that way.

Johanna wasn't going to lose a brother. Not when she hadn't had the chance to apologize to him for what she'd done.

"Get over it," Haymitch hissed next to her. "You've just missed your sister's close-up."

"Fucking shit," she muttered under her breath, snapping back to her screen. They were now doing a long-range shot of the Cornucopia and the tributes, with only twenty seconds left before the buzzer.

...and, BUZZ.

"Swim, you Brainless fish!" she shouted at her screen, which displayed her little sister swimming. "Swim!"

* * *

**Katniss**

"Okay," Finnick said, looking down at the inventory they'd laid on the ground between the trees. "Three tridents, a bow and two quivers of arrows, an ax and two hatchets, two spears, five knives, and a roll of rope. At least two weapons for us each."

"And no food or water," Katniss added, pursing her lips.

The day had started with chaos for her. She thought she'd had her share of surprise when Cinna couldn't make it and some new stylist had to stand in for him, but it was soon shadowed when she found an 'F' jotted down on the label of her tribute wetsuit. They were executing Plan F, which was definitely the worst they could go with. They were essentially in yet another Hunger Games.

She used the fifteen or so minutes she'd gotten between receiving the wetsuit and stepping into the launch tube to compose herself and revise on her survival skills, _and_ frantically searching for the supposedly available Arena plan, inside the suit and everywhere in the preparation room. While trying to look _normal_ for this stylist she didn't know.

At the end, she ended up crossing her fingers and praying that at least one of her allies found theirs, for she definitely couldn't find hers.

Under Plan F, she was to retrieve some supplies from the Cornucopia together with Finnick and Ash, and so, as the buzzer buzzed, she dived in and did her part. Finnick, Ash, and her were the first on the Cornucopia, and were also the first ones to escape. As planned, they'd caught up with Annie - and Peeta, who'd been dragged along by the female Victor from Four to the safe ground on the tail side of the Cornucopia. Everything went as imagined, except there were no food or water in the Cornucopia, and they lost everyone else in their alliance, including Caroline who was one of the main players. They'd waited for her, but when it became apparent that she was nowhere to be seen and the Careers had reached the Cornucopia, they had no other choice but to run into the jungle before they became the next carnages.

Once they were in the jungle and walking, though, a new problem appeared. A quick look and a quiet question confirmed that _none_ of them had found the promised Arena map.

Now, about two hours after that first buzz, they'd rested deep in the jungle, tired after a hike in the heat. They had no idea where they were going, and where they could find water in this place.

Annie laid down in exhaustion with her head on Finnick's lap, as him, Katniss, and Peeta all sat on the ground stretching their legs. Ash, the only alliance member not on the ground, sneered from his perch above a nearby tree. His mood had been really sour since they decided to go without his sister, and whilst Katniss was annoyed at the jerk, she could understand how he'd felt. She wouldn't be able to do the same, had it been Johanna, or even worse, Prim. What Ash had just made was a sacrifice.

With a gentle tap on Peeta's back, she stood up and climbed to where Ash was, sitting one branch above the haunted, brown-eyed redhead.

"Caroline would be alright," she said, trying to convince both herself and him. "She's strong and smart. She won't let the Careers get her."

"Nice try," Ash commented dryly. "I doubt you really know her, but thanks for the consolation anyway."

Katniss looked down and prepared for another retort, but that sad smile on Ash's face stopped her from doing so. With a sharp pain in her chest, she remembered what Johanna had told her. Caroline was all Ash had left, after Snow killed the rest of their family.

"We'll find her," she told him with a lump in her throat. "We'll definitely find her."

Ash said nothing, but the fact that he later came down with her was enough to tell her that she'd made things a bit better.

It was about an hour later that they heard the bloodbath cannons sounding. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One third of the Victor tributes gone.

"Any guess?" she heard Ash asking cynically.

"Let's not go there, Ash," Finnick answered warily. "Keep walking."

Ash smiled his smirky, jerky smile and walked with his head up high. Looking at Peeta, who was visibly trying to hold in a laughter, Katniss realized that she wasn't the only one thinking that they did really have a male Johanna with twice the angst walking around with them.

"STOP!" Annie suddenly yelled at them. "STOP!"

They all stopped and gathered around the young woman, for it was very unusual for her to make a sound - let alone a loud, distraught one.

"Are you Okay?" Katniss asked, glancing at the concerned, confused Finnick.

"You don't walk up there!" Annie said, moving her hands animatedly. "You'll die!"

"Is this a Sailor thing, or what?" Ash asked. Just as Katniss was about to reprimand him, the District Seven male Victor turned to the direction Annie was pointing.

"I see," he then said, squinting and smiling so widely as if he'd just gotten a prize. "I saw that too."

"What's actually going on, guys?" Peeta asked.

"Just wait and see," Ash answered. "It will happen again."

And sure it did. It wasn't apparent at the start, but as Katniss kept squinting, she could see that small fuzzy square on the clear sky.

"The end of the Arena," she piped in, recalling the final moments of Haymitch's Games she'd watched during the train trip to Capitol. "The Force Field."

"It is," Annie softly said, pressing her cheek on Finnick's chest as he hugged her protectively. "Nearly ran into it in my Games, after..."

"Ssh," Finnick comforted, pulling her even closer to him.

"We need a better way to recognize it," Peeta said, his face turning serious in deep thought. "We might not always be able to see it."

"Extra point for Loverboy," Ash commented, looking genuinely impressed. "What are you gonna use?"

Peeta spent several more seconds thinking, then started looking around. Katniss watched as he pulled a bunch of nuts from a tree, and showed them to their alliance.

"This," he said, picking one of the nuts and throwing it onto the sky, right where they saw it fuzzing.

A zap, a burnt smell, and a roasted nut later, they were decided on how they would test the field and cook their food.

They found a nice spot in the jungle and decided to camp there for the night. Annie and Finnick showed them all how to make baskets from leaves - for food and water when they finally found some - and everyone replicated with varied degrees of success: very successful (Peeta) to kaput (Ash). Since their baskets were deemed unusable, Katniss and Ash were sent to a hunt. They relented - though not without reservation - and came back with a few interesting, wet-mouthed creatures everyone decided as "Tree Rats".

"There should be water in here somewhere," Finnick said, upon inspecting the creatures. "We need to go find them tomorrow."

By this time, Katniss's throat was burning with thirst, and the fact that all the food they had were roasted didn't help with it at all. She leaned against Peeta and hang on his arm when the anthem started, stealing secret glances at a distraught Ash who insisted on sitting separately from others.

For the first time in Katniss's life, a District Two Career's face flashed on the sky the first day. Enobaria, the woman who'd had her canine teeth capped with metals upon winning her Games.

The next face was the man from Five - the one Katniss saw Finnick stabbing at the Cornucopia just a few hours prior.

The Male Morphling was the next casualty; she presumed it was the Careers' doing.

There was a restrained sigh of relieve from everyone - except Ash - when Woof's face flashed. Poor, old Woof, who didn't have much going for him. It meant Caroline was alive somewhere in this arena, but it also meant they were down yet another ally.

"Hope it was quick for him," Peeta whispered, smiling sadly at the sky. "He's a truly nice man."

She just nodded and squeezed the arm she was hanging to.

Male Nine, Female Nine, Female Ten, and poor Seeder. And they were done for the day.

"One Career, four unknowns, three allies," Ash tallied the casualties, almost casually. "We're doing pretty good."

"We're not," Peeta disagreed. "We lost three allies."

"Would you rather lost eight allies?" Ash snapped back.

"I'd rather lost no one," Peeta answered firmly.

Ash gave Peeta a half sympathetic and a half sneering look.

"It's gonna be the death of you one day," he said, his tone still harsh but softer than usual. "Who's up for first round of guard duty with me?"

Finnick volunteered, so Katniss squeezed herself between Peeta and Annie and drifted to sleep. She startled for a second when she heard a loud thunder and the two night guards swearing aloud, but quickly went back to sleep as the commotion quieted down.

She was only sleeping for what felt like a second, when another thunder rolled in. This time, she woke up. Not because Finnick and Ash were swearing. But because the air felt weird.

"Peeta," she whispered, shaking her boyfriend awake.

"Huh?" he answered her sleepily.

"Wake up! We're surrounded by fog!"

He jolted up and stood up immediately, as Katniss shook a disoriented, scared Annie awake. Finnick and Ash came back to them; each with this look of panic she hadn't seen since the start of this Games.

"Annie," Finnick beckoned, "jump on my back!"

Annie did, and they all ran sideways, racing with this moving fog which kept chasing them. Katniss ran and ran, until suddenly the air was clear and the burning, thick fog stopped at a point. It was only then she realized she'd lost everyone else.

"Peeta!" she hollered. "Finnick! Annie! Ash!".

"Coming!" Finnick's voice hollered back at her. Looking at where it came, she saw Finnick's silhouette - still carrying a coughing, shaking Annie - coming out of the fog. Her eyes widened, as she saw blisters on their necks and arms. That fog was poisonous.

"We lost the boys," Finnick explained, coughing as he put Annie on the ground and sat down. "Heard Ash swearing and that was it."

"Still here!" Ash shouted, somewhere in the distance. A few seconds later, he appeared, with a limp-looking Peeta on his back.

"Peeta!" Katniss screamed, hurrying to pry her boyfriend off Ash's back. Ash shot her a thankful yet annoyed glare, before plopping down on the ground and catching his breath. Both their faces were blistered - and Peeta's was lopsided.

"Your man got paralyzed halfway through," Ash explained, closing his eyes as he took short breaths. "Hope it's temporary, for it won't be good otherwise."

"I can feel my face again," Peeta commented, in this strange, alien-like voice. "Thanks by the way."

"No problem," Ash responded, still with closed eyes. "I didn't even know why I picked you up, but we're here anyway so doesn't matter."

If Ash's face wasn't already blistered, Katniss was sure she'd put a hand mark on it.

They thankfully still had a weapon each: Annie's rope, Peeta's knife, Katniss's bow and some arrows, Finnick's trident, and Ash's hatchet. Whatever food and other things they managed to collect were gone, though, it was back to square zero.

"Finnick," Katniss heard Annie saying, as they made their way down to the only open area in the Arena: the beach. "I need to drink. I can't handle this anymore."

"I know," Finnick said, in a sweet, soothing voice Katniss hadn't heard him using to anyone. "We'll find water soon, Annie. I promise."

And her mind travelled to that moment years ago, when she was short and little and running around with two plaits on her head.

* * *

_They were playing at their backyard: Katniss and Johanna. It was the middle of summer, and their baby sister Primrose was few months old. Their Ma had been busy with the baby the entire day; poor thing had caught a fever. The girls were ordered to go outside and play, for there was nothing for them to do in the house and they were bored._

_"Joey," four year old Katniss said, in the middle of their game of hopscotch. "I'm thirsty."_

_"There should be water in the kitchen!" sassy, six year old Johanna snapped, annoyed that Katniss had interrupted her hopping. "Go get it yourself!"_

_"But... but I drank the last cup," Katniss cowered, trembling a bit._

_Johanna huffed and strode towards her sister._

_"Here," she said, extending her arms. "Have a hug. You'll forget it."_

_"But I need to drink!" Katniss protested, tears welling up in her eyes._

_Johanna let out another huff._

_"Alright," she said, "let's go find water."_

_At the corner of their humble backyard was a well. There wasn't much water in it, for it was summer, but they knew there was still some - otherwise, their Pa would have purchased those jerrycans of water and put them in the kitchen. None of them was tall enough to see into the thing without climbing, so they didn't know how deep they had to lower down their bucket. Katniss stood and looked on as Johanna untied the bucket and started lowering it down, hanging onto the rope for dear life so they didn't lose it._

_"Bugger," the older girl muttered, after a few seconds. "Hold this, Kitty."_

_Katniss took the rope from her sister's hand and watched, wide-eyed, as Johanna started hanging off the side of the well and using her arms to pull herself up to the edge._

_She was up there, looking down at the deep hole, when a pair of motherly arms scooped her down._

_"What are you doing here, girls?" a concerned Hazelle Hawthorne asked, looking at the two girls. She must have been coming for their Ma, for next to her, stood her eldest, Gale, with a bleeding gash on his arm._

_"Kitty's thirsty, so I went to get her some water," Johanna sassed, glaring at the woman. "I'm not doing anything bad!"_

_"You'll fall down, Moron," Gale commented, scowling at Johanna. "And you're so short they'll never find you in there."_

_"Gale!" Hazelle scolded, looking at her son. "Be nice!"_

_"But she's truly short, Ma!" the boy protested, clearly ignoring his mother._

_"You stink!" Katniss scowled, looking at the mean boy. Johanna was her sister, and no one insulted her sister._

_"Shut up!" the boy scolded her. "You're even shorter!"_

_Johanna came over and whacked Gale on his arm... which had the gash. The boy yelped and started clutching his arm, looking as if he was about to cry._

_"That's for you, Stupid," she scolded him, glaring. "You speak to her like that once more, and I'll whack your arm off."_

_"Girls," Hazelle quickly stepped in, glaring at her son and pointing him to the Everdeens' backdoor. "Let's get you some water."_

_And afterwards, when they sat together drinking water from their cups, listening to Gale Hawthorne's cries as their mother stitch his arm, Johanna turned to Katniss, and said, "patience."_

* * *

Katniss didn't realize she was laughing to herself, until Ash pelted her with a small stone to get her attention.

"Done with your imagination?" he sneered, once he got her attention.

"Not really," Katniss responded, chuckling. She stopped and threw her head back, shouting at the sky. "Joey! I'm thirsty!"

It echoed throughout the Arena like a ripple, and she earned glares from Finnick, Ash - and even Peeta - for attracting attention. But as they arrived on the beach, all peeling and thirsty and tired, they got their first parachute. Delivered to Katniss, right on her face. In it was a small, tube-like thing that Ash immediately recognized, and a little message in Johanna's handwriting.

'Patience.'

* * *

**Johanna**

One and a half day into the Games, with twelve tributes - twelve Victors - gone.

So much for Plutarch and his messed up, stupid Plan F. It turned out to be totally botched, for they also couldn't give out the Arena map as planned. Something as important like that, and the Gamemaker casually said he _forgot _to take that possibility into account. Now, there was no way they could give any kind of clue to the tributes about the Arena, for Snow was watching each and every of their movement thanks to some person's near slip-up.

Johanna hadn't told a single soul, but the more things went, the more she had this bad feeling that this botched Plan F was actually Plutarch and District Thirteen's Plan A. One by one, things which would make this less of a Hunger Games and more like a camouflage went wrong, and it looked more and more like the real thing.

She found herself resting her forehead on the bottom of her screen, again, for she realized they'd all been fooled. She should have known better than to trust a Gamemaker.

The new casualties were Female Six - the female Morphling - who'd appeared from nowhere sacrificing herself for Katniss and Peeta's alliance. Her death was slow and painful, much like Rue's last year, and Peeta helped her through it.

After that, Male Ten went. In a gory way, torn apart by some crazy-looking mutt Johanna didn't even recognize. The hovercraft picked him up in pieces; it would totally be close casket funeral for him.

A few hours before midday, some kind of tidal wave washed off a sector of the Arena, taking away Female Five with it. Gone was all the tributes which were neither Careers nor their allies. It was all Careers versus rebels now - and finding the right time, the right chance to escape.

The next casualty happened just about an hour ago, in another alliance. Nuts. Stabbed and attacked by some Career tribute, apparently. She wasn't really paying attention to the main screen, so she didn't know how exactly it went. She was too busy watching her sister and her friends gathering supplies, and using the spile she'd sent them - after consulting Blight - to collect rainwater trapped in trees.

Five of their alliance members lost. And she had a feeling that wouldn't be all.

"You heard the news already?" Haymitch asked her, settling back down on his chair. He'd been gone for a bit of a sleep - Johanna made him do it, for he'd been running without since the Games started.

"Which one?" she asked him, glaring annoyedly. "You know there are thousands of news flying around everyday."

"Your sister's stylist disappeared."

And that was a code for, "Cinna's done what we suggested after his Mockingjay stunt and is now on his way to Thirteen".

And a cue for 'acting time', really, for Cinna was supposed to have _disappeared right after the interviews_, and neither Johanna nor Haymitch was supposed to know.

"What?" she asked, faking a surprise. "When?"

"Hasn't been seen since the night before the Games," Haymitch answered, faking a concerned tone. "They had to send in someone else to accompany your sister to the prep room."

"But this other freaking stylist didn't know her!" Johanna yelled, reenacting her reaction when Haymitch first told her about the plan regarding Cinna. "She must have been really lonely!"

"Better than going to the Arena naked, I guess," Haymitch sneered, turning back to the screen which now displayed some figures running to the beach. Covered with blood.

Cussing, Johanna turned back to her screen. The three rusty figures were now on the beach, one of them sprinting and screaming for Ash and Finnick. Johanna's heart lurched, as she recognized Caroline's voice. She hadn't been paying attention to Blight's reaction, for she had been busy with her tributes and the monkeys. Judging the speed Caroline was running, she was most probably alright, but she was totally hysterical Johanna had no idea when she would calm down.

"Blight!" she hollered, spinning her chair around. "What the fuck?!"

"Blood rain!" Blight hollered back, explaining and defending himself. "They're all fine! Except Volts, maybe, but they're fine!"

Taking in a deep breath to calm herself down, Johanna spun back to her screen. There, she could see Katniss fussing over Caroline, the Mason girl's brother standing angrily nearby. Cecelia was next to them, cleaning up as well, looking shaken but physically fine. Haymitch's screen showed Peeta scooting on the ground with Finnick and Annie, checking on Beetee - Volts - 's back. The man looked so much in pain, and Johanna could see the handle of a knife jutting out of his back. The position was right. He could end up paralyzed, soon.

"Volts looks really bad," she told Haymitch, looking at her mentor. "Do you think we can lend Three some so that they could send him stuff?"

Haymitch looked at her and sneered.

"You sound so much like your sister," he said, smirking. "For a while, I thought it was you in there, and Sweetheart next to me here."

"Don't you joke around, Old Man!" she snapped at him, glaring. "Go fix Volts, if you have some spare!"

"Doll," Haymitch told her warily, "resources are scarce. Go talk to Blight and Mags. I doubt we'll have enough spare to cover that kind of medication, but I know you won't be satisfied unless you try."

"I'm flat out," Blight chimed in, overhearing their conversation. "That Slippery Sucker, Finnick Odair, sucked all the sponsors."

"I heard that, Blight," Mags responded, a bit unclearly because she was, well, Mags, but loud enough for everyone to hear. "Just use the money if you want, but don't speak like that about my boy."

Johanna smirked. Mags might be old and harmless-looking, but when it came to Finnick, she would turn into a Momma Bear. He was her boy. And no one hurt her boy.

She got up and approached the elderly woman, who was still giving Blight dirty looks.

"Hey, Mags," she said, giving the older woman a quick hug. "Sorry about that. I forgot Blight doesn't really think."

"S'Okay," Mags grumbled, briefly returning the hug. "I just wish he didn't say that about my boy."

"I do, too," Johanna said, letting her soft side show a bit. It couldn't be that harmful right now, now that she wasn't in the Arena and was practically among friends.

"How much do you need, Love?"

Mags was perhaps the only person in the world who'd called her 'Love'.

"As much as you're willing to give," Johanna answered, deciding not to stand between Finnick and Annie and whatever Mags thought they would need. "We're just trying to fix Volts."

Mags looked up sadly at her.

"Love," the older woman said, "I've seen that before. He needs to go to a hospital."

"Have you just said we've got to get him out?" she confirmed, trying to tone as much as possible of her brashness.

"Yes," Mags confirmed. "We have to get him out."

Johanna sighed.

"Okay," she said, giving the woman a quick kiss on the cheek - something Finnick told her to do, the first time he introduced her to this mentor of his. "Thanks anyway."

"Good luck, Love."

With that, she walked to her viewing station and got back this strange mixture of work and mental torture she'd been enduring since yesterday.

* * *

**Katniss**

It took them an hour and a half or so, but Caroline finally stopped crying.

"Detachment," Ash lectured as he held his sister. "Detachment."

He seemed to not quite believe it too, though, judging that secret distraught look in his eyes.

Once they were all cleaned and settled, Cecelia had told the group what happened to Wiress - who had previously been with her, Caroline, and Beetee. They had a run-in with the Careers walking in the jungle and gotten into a fight. Someone - most likely Cashmere from One - had knifed Beetee on the back. Cecelia had run with him, whilst Caroline tried distracting the three Careers. It was then they lost Wiress; she simply slipped out of their minds, and by the time they realized it, she'd also been stabbed on the back.

"The Careers just ran off after that," Cecelia finished, looking around at the group. She was still shaken, but there was something Katniss couldn't miss in her eyes. Hope. The woman still had the hope that she would escape, would come back to her children. "Then came the blood rain, and... we were here."

"They're looking to attack us as a big group, I think," Peeta commented. "If they... If they'd killed Caroline, we would know it was their doing, and..."

"And I'd be after them to make sure they're dead," Ash helped Peeta finishing, sneering.

"Me too," Finnick added. Annie tugged on his arm and shook her head, but he just smiled at her and looked pleadingly at her. "No one can mess with my friends and get away with it."

"Thanks, guys," Caroline responded, wiping her still-leaking eyes on her hand. "Sorry about this. I don't know why I'm this shaken, but... Oh, God..."

"Caro," Finnick cut in, patting the girl on the arm. "Think about this. You had that battle with Enobaria yesterday, and today, you lost an ally. That's a lot to stomach. Really."

Katniss watched in what could be described as an awe, as Finnick took the shaken girl over from her brother and hugged her. She'd never thought of Finnick Odair as a good brother; to her, he was always this confident, efficient, flirty Victor. She wondered if he had - or had had, at one point - a little brother or a little sister, one who had clung to him for dear life.

"Guys," Cecelia interrupted, a few seconds later. "Before she died, Wiress said something."

"And what was that?" Peeta asked, glancing at the wounded, feverish Beetee, whom they'd laid next to him.

"Tick tock," Cecelia answered, clasping her hands on her mouth. "And that was it."

Katniss twirled Johanna's little tube - a spile, as Ash smugly told them - and pursed her lips in concentration. Tick tock. It was somewhat intriguing. It would perhaps make sense had any of them gotten a hand on the Arena Map, but judging how things looked, none of their newly found members had seen the thing too. The only person who might have seen that was Wiress, but she was gone now, and they were once more clueless and in danger.

"Wire," Beetee writhed, pale and coughing. "Wire."

Peeta gave her a quick, sad glance, before turning to Beetee and squeezed his hand briefly. Rumour had it that Beetee and Wiress were a couple. If that was true...

Katniss didn't want to think more about that.

"I'll go find some more water," she told the group, for the thought suddenly become unbearable for her.

"Can I come?" Caroline pleaded.

"You sure you're OK?" Katniss asked. Her instinct as a big sister was to protect this other girl in her vulnerability, and she would rather her staying here.

"It'll help me forget," Caroline got up, lightly pushing Finnick away from her.

"I'll come with you girls," Finnick offer. He gave Annie a quick kiss on the cheek and gave Ash a quick look, as if asking him to watch over her. Ash nodded and patted Finnick's hand in reassurance, for a second looking like a proper gentleman.

As she looked around these broken people and thought about her own sister, Katniss wondered what their lives would have been had there not be the Games and Snow's evil deal. Perhaps they would all be happy and whole, marrying the loves of their lives, maybe with some children. She threw her head back and looked up at the sky, clenching her fists as she told herself that Snow would pay for all the woes he'd caused.

"Ready to go, my Ladies?" Finnick asked her, winking seductively.

"I guess so," she answered. She added, just as a joke, "I'm not your Lady, though."

Everyone laughed - including Finnick himself.

They made their way away from the group, then up into the woods. Finnick entertained Katniss and Caroline with these lame, somewhat-made-up stories of his life in District Four, and they all laughed together.

"Come on, Finnick!" Caroline shouted, all her woes forgotten. "Mermaids don't exist!"

"Well," he argued, "Annie was one."

"Bullshit," Katniss called, smiling slightly. "She's beautiful, Finnick, but mermaids don't exist."

"See?" Caroline stuck out her tongue.

Water basket full, they headed back down to the beach to meet the rest of the group. They didn't make it there, though. Something - a familiar voice - stopped them.

"STOP! STOP IT! IT HURTS!"

The basket dropped with a splash on Katniss's feet.

"JOEY!" she screamed, spinning around in circles trying to figure out where her sister's screams came from. "JOEY!"

**to be continued...**

* * *

****Hope you like it everyone! Constructive criticism is welcomed as always. I'll see you on Friday (GMT +11 Friday, actually, which is Thursday for some of you), with the next chapter in which The Quell ends. Till then, have a good week! :)


	19. Chapter 20: The 75th Survivors

**AN: **Hi everyone! Thanks for reading. Welcoming my new followers ellabumbella and michelle. . Thanks to michelle. and Born a Mockingjay for putting this story as a favourite, and special thanks to my reviewers: nothing2000, Norbert's Mom, ellie82, jc52185, and axes tridents and snares. You guys kept me going and put a smile on my face.

Alright. So the Quell ends in this one... and so does the Catching Fire arc. In the next one, we will start the Mockingjay arc, which will be the one differing the most from the book. I must say I have a whole lot of loose ends to tie on that one, and am trying really hard not to forget anything. Anyway, this one's for you today (12 hours early yay), and hope you'll enjoy it.

**Disclaimer:** THG Trilogy and its characters and Panem are the brainchildren of Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing. In case you spot any (minor/side) O.C in this story (which you will), they belong to me.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty: The 75th Survivors**

**Katniss**

The scream echoed from all different directions, sending all three of them into a crazy spinning spell.

"THEY'VE GOT JOHANNA!" Katniss hollered to her allies, her stomach lurched with every each scream she heard. "THEY'VE GOT MY SISTER!"

And as if it wasn't enough, another familiar scream started.

"KATNISS!"

There went Katniss's entire world.

"PRIM!" Katniss screamed, her head hurt and her brain confused as hell trying to follow the two different sounds. "PRIM!"

More and more sounds echoed, one unfamiliar to her but not the others. Haymitch. Gale. Madge. Even her mother, Delly, and Wheaton. Everyone she cared about.

Next to her, Finnick sank to the ground, muttering a name and sobbing. Caroline was screaming; begging no particular person for mercy. Shouting. Sobbing. Screaming. All kinds of voices blend.

Katniss felt her conscience retreating deep into her head, as she tried, frantically, to block all but two of those sounds.

* * *

When the sounds stopped and her lucidity came back, she found herself crumpled on the beach, a worried Peeta hovering over her.

"Katniss," he begged. "Katniss. Please come back. It wasn't real."

"Not," she croaked, feeling weak and spent, "real."

"Yes, Katniss, not real."

Slowly, she rose to a sitting position and looked around. Finnick was there, pale and wrapped safely in Annie's arms. Caroline, though, was nowhere to be seen.

"Caroline," she asked, looking at her companions. "Where's Caroline?"

"She went somewhere with her brother," Cecelia answered, looking up from a conscious, alert Beetee.

"Cooking dinner," Peeta added, smiling.

Annie threw her a sympathetic look, in between combing Finnick's bronze hair - with hand. He whispered something to her, and she bent down, pressing her lips to his. Since the Games started, they hadn't bothered hiding their relationship from anyone. Katniss agreed that it wasn't necessary.

She sat there for a while, sipping the water Peeta brought to her and staring at the afternoon sky. It was bright; pre-sunset bright. Her stomach still lurched when she remembered why she was sitting there right now.

"Peeta," she asked, fighting an urge to vomit. "How do we know it wasn't real?"

"That," Peeta said, pointing at two figures approaching them. Caroline and Ash, carrying roasted animals in their hands.

"Dinner!" Caroline called cheerfully. "Fish, tree rats, nuts, and jabberjays!"

Jabberjays.

Freaking jabberjays.

No. _Fucking_ jabberjays.

"Damn," she muttered, feeling relieved yet ashamed that she'd been tricked by some stupid Capitol mutants. An anger quickly took over, though; an anger that Capitol had used her beloved sisters as weapons against her.

She seethed over dinner, only calming down a bit once the sun went down and the sky turned orange. By this time, they were having some little shellfish Finnick taught them how to dive for. Oysters, Katniss remembered what it was called. Opening it was fun, and eating it was a different experience - a slimy thing sliding down your throat - but what made it even more fun was Finnick's ridiculous shellfish-related stories, and Ash's skepticism of their truths.

"That's where you get your pearl from," Finnick said confidently, as they had their last oysters.

This time, no one disputed, so surely it was true.

And yes, it was true. Peeta found one in his.

"Hey! Found one!" he exclaimed, excited like a little boy as he hold the thing in his palm for everyone to see. It got everyone excited - even Ash.

What happened next, though, was predictable though not entirely expected. Peeta turned to Katniss and gave the pearl to her.

"For you," he said, smiling somewhat shyly at her. "Happy Quarter Quell."

"Happy Quarter Quell," she replied to him, smiling back. Her parachute from Johanna's spile shipment was still attached on her waist; she slid the pearl into it for safekeeping, after a few minutes of admiration.

"It's getting dark," Finnick said, snapping Katniss out of her dreamy thoughts. "We'd better set up camp and rounds of guard duty."

They set up their small, sheltered camp right where the beach end and the jungle started, and decided on who was guarding. Katniss and Peeta were up first; they sat together on the beach as everyone else rested and had lay-downs.

"This is so beautiful," Peeta said, as he looked up to the sky. "The beach. Sunset. You. I want to freeze this moment and live in it forever."

"Ssh," Katniss scolded him, giving him a small smile. "You've got a whole life to live, out of here. Where the beaches are real and the sunset is real."

"I don't mind, really," he responded. His eyes moved slowly, from the sky to her. "As long as you're real."

"Real," Katniss reiterated, as she let her emotions take over and planted her lips on his.

(In hindsight, they were lucky the Careers weren't around, for they were completely lost in each other and didn't pay attention to their surroundings. However, as luck had it, the Careers were deep in the jungle that very moment, too terrified to come down to the beach and face the eight of them.)

Apart from the emotional midnight when the faces of Wiress, the female Morphling, and two tributes not in their alliance were displayed, the night was pretty much uneventful. That was, until just before sunrise the next morning, when the Jabberjays attacked again waking up everyone who were asleep.

"I wouldn't have fallen for this," Ash said, annoyed but smug as they all scooted down to the beach covering their ears. "The only voice I recognize is Johanna's, and she certainly won't admit that things hurt. Oh, and my mentor's too, but he generally never makes a sound unless asked."

Now that she'd thought about it, Katniss saw the truth behind the statement. She must have looked so funny or so scowling, for everyone else looked at her as if she had two heads.

"Those birds must have been learning from distorted voices," Beetee chimed in, his eyes gleaming like he'd just gotten a lightbulb moment. "It's really easy to take a sample of someone's voice and manipulate them to sound like something else. Our kids learn it at school."

The birds stopped after an hour. The urge to sleep was gone , though, and they all ended up sitting and talking on the beach, thinking of their next moves.

* * *

**Johanna**

She unplugged her ear, as it became apparent that the jabberjays had stopped.

"Fuck," she muttered, leaning back against her chair. "Fuck."

"Scared of your own voice, Doll?" Haymitch teased her.

"Shut up," she responded, turning away. "I'm pissed."

Turning her into Katniss's weakness, into her friends' weaknesses. What other dirty trick Capitol had up their sleeves, that they hadn't tried?

And using Gale's voice too, of all people. Had she not known her boyfriend never called her sister Katniss, she would have gone completely batshit. In fact, she fell for it the first time, clutching so tightly at the sides of her screen the box had a small dent mark.

"Go rest," Haymitch told her, eyes on the screen but voice gentler than usual. "You haven't been out of here since yesterday."

"My sister's competing with her boyfriend and my friends in that Arena, and you ask me to go rest?" Johanna snapped, turning at her mentor. She knew it wasn't nice of her, but she was never nice, wasn't she?

"You've just seen my point, Doll," he responded lightly. "But if you'd rather stay awake, keep that sass in and be helpful."

"If you weren't my mentor, I'd have snapped your neck," Johanna threatened, glaring at him for a bit. She hated admitting this, but she actually saw his point, so she leaned back and focused on the screen, on the things happening.

The day saw Katniss making her first Quarter Quell kill: Queen Cashmere. She'd been in this expedition with Finnick and Ash at the Cornucopia, retrieving extra weapons and that coil of wire Volts wanted, when the Careers made a sudden ambush on them. Ash finished Gloss, but Brutus got away. Anyway, it wasn't important, for the wire was in their hands.

That coil of wire was their safety net, should Plutarch's plan to hijack the Main Control room and chock open the Force Field failed. If there was anything Plutarch actually did to make their life easier, it was definitely granting Volts' request to have some form of strong electricity in the arena, in the form of the lightnings. She crossed her fingers that Volts' brilliant idea would work. Judging the way things looked with Plutarch now, him getting really mysterious and flighty and all, it seemed that it would be what they ended up doing.

"Gotta go send some bread," Haymitch said, secretly winking at her, as they watched Beetee - Volts - inspecting the coil with a gleam in his eyes. He'd gone out for a while earlier in the day after receiving a little message from someone. Looked like it was escape time, after all. They'd agreed on this signal before: bread. The origin, the day of the rescue. The amount, the hour.

The next thing happening made her really glad that Haymitch was away. His friend Chaff became the next Games casualty, lost a fight with Brutus and died. Johanna found herself sitting with her head in her hands afterwards, dreading the time when Haymitch would come back. She ended up sending him away for a walk when he eventually got back, knowing that he would appreciate the time alone.

The bread reached the alliance of eight around two hours later. Twenty four of those District Three rolls. She saw them all wide-eyed when they realized they only had hours until the rescue, and almost laughed had she not remembered that District Two mentor was still in the room and was currently glaring at her.

"Doll."

Turning around, she realized her mentor had come back. He looked like hell, and for the first time in the years she'd known him, she noticed he'd been crying a little bit.

"Go run my errands for me, won't you?"

And that was another clue. Another clue to round of some stylists and Prep Team members and board that secret hovercraft.

"But my sister!" she protested, half for show and half for real.

"I'll take care of Sweetheart," he responded, turning to the screen. "Just go now."

That was it. Johanna stood up and headed out, throwing that one last glance at the big screen, praying that her sister and her friends would soon realize that their arena was, as Nuts had said in her last breaths, a clock.

* * *

**Katniss**

That was it. She'd just figured out the Arena.

It's like a clock. Twelve sectors, each with a different event triggered when its hours came.

_Tick tock_, said Wiress.

_'t starts at midnight, _said Plutarch.

She stood quietly next to Peeta, as he sketched, on the sand, the sectors of the Arena and marked what they'd known about. Across the saltwater lake, she saw the Cornucopia spinning, but it didn't matter anyway. They knew they were one sector away, anticlockwise, from the jabberjays, where the monkeys had attacked them - the previous day, and just now. They'd sent Ash to the jabberjay section just to figure out, and he confirmed that it was indeed in action. Their estimation of time might be a bit off, and there were areas they didn't know about, but Beetee had noticed the bursts of lightning hitting one particular tree in the twelve to one o'clock section, when its hour came.

And that was how they were going to escape. A wire and some electricity. Just like what Beetee had used in his Games.

Well, actually, Plutarch was meant to turn the force field off, once the rescue hour stroke. But Plan F said that they should prepare to destroy the field from inside as well, just in case Plutarch's plan got bungled.

Unlike in Beetee's Games, though, where he'd constructed an electrical trap to kill the Career pack, this destruction plan involved shooting the wire up in the sky just before it got electrified. Apparently, if you run electricity through one of those fuzzy squares in the force field above the arena, the whole thing would get disrupted and destroyed.

And so, to begin the escape, Peeta started making his point.

"It's eight of us and Brutus now," he said, looking solemn and sad. "And only one of us to get out of here. What do we do now?"

"Yeah, Boy," Ash chimed in, "what do we do. I believe you would die for your girl, judging your public confessions. And so would you, Finnick. And I, well, I'm a big softie, but I'll let my sister escape even if I'd die. Girls, would any of you go out alone?"

Annie shook her head, tears brimming in her eyes. Caroline did the same, crying - well, mock crying, really - onto her brother's sleeve, as Ash looked away. And so, Katniss knew, this was her part.

"No," she answered curtly. "I'm not going without Peeta."

"Well," Beetee added, glancing at Cecelia. "I... I don't mind, really. I had a good life. Cecelia's kids need their mother. She should be the one going."

"Guys," Cecelia said, looking miserable but determined. "You all have your lives too. It's unfair that I get to live, and you don't."

"But..."

"Alright, alright!" Ash roared, arms up in the air. "Since none of us wanna go out, maybe we should all take a leaf out of these Lovebirds' book and go together."

He glanced at Katniss and Peeta, and gave them what Katniss thought could be a secret wink.

"There's no nightlock here," Peeta gently reminded, smiling sadly.

"No, not the stupid berries," Ash exclaimed, jumping up and started pacing up and down. "I want to die in style. In heroic style. And take Brutus down with me, if I could. I can't let that idiot be a Victor one more time. Volts, any idea?"

Beetee frowned, as if thinking, although he had the plan thought out months ahead.

"Okay," he said, after a few moments of silence. "Trust me, and I'll make you one."

They all huddled around him, as he relayed their plan, leaving out the part where they were to shoot the cable up.

"Pick a time?" Beetee cued Finnick. They'd all known what the bread meant, but they of course couldn't tell the whole Panem about it.

"Midnight?" Finnick suggested. "I'd like to see the faces of those who fell today first."

It might be a lie, it might not be, but it wasn't important. The important thing was that they were going to do their mission at midnight.

Peeta kissed her good luck, before she departed on her mission laying out the wire with Caroline. He was staying to help the main alliance with defense - against Brutus, who might still be loose.

"See you soon," he told her, smiling her his sweet smile before joining the main alliance.

"See you soon," she responded. Something caught in her throat - things might go wrong, and they might not meet again - but an impatient tap on her shoulder brought her back to reality.

She tried not to think about Peeta, not to think about Johanna and Prim and their mother and Haymitch and Gale and everyone else, as she made her way to the midnight tree with Caroline and Ash, who was in charge of guarding them.

"Just lay out the thing, OK?" Ash instructed them, for once sounding like a caring, loving big brother. "I'll watch your backs for you. We'll be all in this together."

Katniss nodded and gave him a quick hug, which he neither responded to nor pull away from.

Between tying, unrolling, and straightening, time went so quickly. Before long, they'd reached the water and made their way back to their alliance, who was going to wait somewhere along the wire, on the pretense of holding onto it together when the lightning stroke.

"Hymn," Caroline whispered, as the familiar tune started. "We won't get to them on time."

"I know," Katniss whispered back, as they all settled on the jungle floor - not too faraway from the beach, judging the fact that they could see a bit of it. Faces started appearing. Cashmere. Gloss. Chaff.

"Fuck my life," Ash sneered, "Brutus's still around. Thank our lucky stars he's as dumb as a..."

Katniss didn't know how it ended, for she was too busy looking up at the sky. If things went according to plan, it should have been parted now. It was supposed to be turned off after the last of the face disappeared.

It was clear and tranquil, and for a moment, she thought it had happened. But then, there it was - that little fuzzy square, the chink in the armour. They were still under force field.

Sparks of white started appearing above them. The big lightning was going to strike the tree soon. And she knew, she had to get into action.

"It's time," she hissed, getting up into position. Now was the time. She was to shoot that wire upwards. "We're not gonna die. I'm going to destroy this Arena."

She didn't pay attention to what Ash and Caroline was doing, really. She knew they were acting as if they were holding on to her and fighting her off, but she barely registered any forces against her body. She tied that wire to her arrow, and began shooting upwards. Towards that one fuzzy square on the field that she could see, right above her.

The lightning stroke. And that was the last thing Katniss remembered clearly, for all hell broke loose afterwards.

There was this loud, constant buzz, and the sky turned white. Materials fell down to the earth. Shouts and screams echoed in the Arena, and she felt someone dragging her by her wrist up the hill.

"Tracker! Your tracker!"

The extra knife was tucked in her belt. Shaking, she reached for it, and started cutting on her own arm. They had to take the trackers off themselves, for they didn't want the Capitol to track them down.

"WATCH OUT!"

She'd just felt the tracker coming out, when someone grabbed her by the waist and hauled her away. Something happened, and her rescuer and her both fell to the dark ground. Her head hit something. Maybe the strong root of a tree.

The last thing she remembered before it all went dark was the feel of cold, strong metal on her middle, and being lifted up to the sky on high speed.

* * *

**Johanna**

"That's it, Doll. Plutarch saw them picked up by the Capitol."

She looked up at them and slammed her fists on the table.

"Don't fucking shirk your responsibilities!" she shouted, not caring how she looked or if the crew members around her shrunk in fear. "That's three of our members you're talking about!"

"I'm afraid we can't turn back, Miss Everdeen," Plutarch said. "Snow has deployed Military Hovercrafts to track us down. The quicker we can escape, the safer it would be. For the most of our members."

"Fuck you," she spat, kicking off her chair and heading out of the main room. Tears welled up in her eyes; she held them long enough until she was on the small alleyway, which was devoid of others as of now. They'd just failed their mission. They'd failed Finnick, Ash, and Katniss. Her friends and her sister had trusted their loved ones' lives in her and Haymitch's hands. And instead, they'd just let Annie, Caroline, and Peeta slip away from their grasp.

"Jo-Jo!" Finnick's voice echoed.

She buried her head in her arms, unable to face him. Annie. His Annie. Lost to the Capitol. Johanna knew she deserved to die for this.

"You OK?"

That's Finnick. Always taking care of her.

"Finn," she finally said, lifting her head though she still couldn't look him in the eyes. "I'm sorry."

She could feel Finnick's spirit falling.

"Jo-Jo?"

He sounded so vulnerable and weak she almost couldn't bear it.

"I... We failed to get Annie. And Caroline. And Peeta."

Finnick pushed past her, and she fell on her bottom, but she didn't care. She deserved it.

One sin admitted, two more to confess.

Gritting her teeth, she got up and made her way to the makeshift infirmary. A lucid Cecelia gave her a quick hug as they passed each other halfway through, and she hugged the woman back. Cecelia's hope and gratefulness suffocated her. Her humanity rejoiced that the three children still got to keep their mother; but her human side screamed inside her head how unfair it was that Cecelia got to get back to her loved ones and the others didn't. She quickly walked off before things got ugly, she didn't want to end up lashing at the fellow Victor she knew fairly well.

The infirmary was quiet when she walked in. She was the only visitor at the time being. The three Victors: Beetee, Ash, and Katniss were all still unconscious, hooked onto drips and emergency blood supplies. They had all cut their trackers off their arms, in addition to the injuries they suffered.

She didn't know how long she sat there alone, between the beds holding her sister and her best friend. She was terrified. Selfishly terrified. She wished she could berate herself for that, but she couldn't.

She couldn't lose Ash. And most importantly, she couldn't lose Katniss.

Yet she knew they wouldn't forgive her for failing Peeta and Caroline.

"Hey, Kiddo."

She turned to Ash, and straight away met her friend's eyes.

"I sucked," she told him, drawing in a deep breath. "We lost your sister."

"I know," Ash answered, turning his head away. "I saw them picking her up."

"Ash..."

She couldn't say anything. She was at loss of words.

"Don't you cry," he scolded her, "I've grabbed your sister for you. Go cuddle her."

"I lost her boy, too."

Ash turned back to her.

"Now, that's serious," he commented coldly. "You know that's unforgivable, don't you?"

"I do," she told him. "Plutarch wouldn't turn back for him. He wouldn't turn back for any of them."

"Not when he's gotten the Mockingjay," Ash said, glancing quickly at a stirring, writhing Katniss. "Who the hell is Annie Cresta? Who the hell is Peeta Mellark? Who the hell is Caroline Mason? As long as we have Katniss Everdeen, the rebellion will keep going."

His voice broke, right when he mentioned his sister.

"Just get out of my sight, Johanna," he snapped, turning away from her again. "I need to be alone."

Johanna exhaled and moved over to the other side of Katniss's bed. Her sister was half-awake now, she looked around bewilderedly as if she was still in the Arena.

"Joey?"

"Kitty."

Her younger sister flew into her arms straight away, hugging her as if tomorrow would never come.

"Are we out?" the younger girl asked afterwards, looking up at her with a vulnerability only Johanna knew existed.

"Yes, Kitty," Johanna answered, "we're out. We're flying to Thirteen now."

Katniss hugged her again. Johanna inhaled, for she knew this happiness would be really temporary.

"How are the others?" Katniss asked her, quickly scanning the room. "Oh, hello Ash."

Ash gave Katniss a wave without even turning. Most probably because he was crying.

"Volts's up there on the other bed," Johanna started, pointing at the bed at the end. "Finnick and Cecelia are in here somewhere."

Katniss looked at her, as if expecting more to come. Then, realization dawned, and her face fell.

"Joey?" she whimpered. "Where are the others? Where's Peeta?"

Johanna closed her eyes and braced herself for the worst.

"Kitty," she told her sister, "The Capitol has them."

The first reaction was silence. Then, her shoulders were grabbed violently; her body thrown against the infirmary wall. A slap on her face. A punch on her chest, followed by another. She closed her eyes and took them all, sinking to the floor under her. She deserved them.

"What the hell!" Ash's voice rang in the room. "What are you doing, foolish girl? Killing your sister?"

"I HATE HER! I HATE HER! SHE'S A LIAR! SHE'S A DIRTY LIAR!"

The scream moulded into hysterical wails, and she felt the weight above her disappeared. She opened her eyes. Ash had picked her sister up and thrown the younger girl back on the bed, as violently as Katniss had grabbed Johanna before.

"She left him behind," Katniss sobbed, looking accusingly at Johanna. "She left him behind!"

"And my sister and Annie," Ash added. He turned, looking at Johanna. "But she tried. And don't think she's less sad than you are. Katniss Everdeen, you're the most self-centered, spoiled bitch around. And I mean it."

"You don't speak to my sister like that, Big Mason," Johanna coldly told her friend, as she picked herself up from the floor. "No one does. Get lost."

"See that, Katniss?" Ash asked harshly. "My sister's gone, and you still have yours. Enjoy it when you can."

With that, he walked out and left them alone with an unconscious Volts.

"I... I'll leave you alone here," Johanna said, looking sadly at her broken sister. "We should be there in a few hours."

"No," Katniss snapped. She'd stopped crying; the shock from Ash's statements seemed to have brought her back to reality. "I don't want you to go."

"You hate me," Johanna said, in a soft tone which even surprised herself. "I'd better go."

She left them at that.

**to be continued...**

* * *

****Thanks for reading everyone. Sorry for the rather anti-climatic ending of the Quell. I was seriously considering differing from the book, but then I decided to settle for this one, for it would actually do all the characters better for the next arc of the story. I'm planning to post the next chapter on Saturday (between Good Friday and Easter). See you then, and have a good time there!


	20. Chapter 21: Gathering Forces

**AN: **Hello hello! Thanks for reading everyone. Welcoming my new follower Born a Mockingjay. Special thanks for my reviewers: Norbert's Mom, jc52185, nothing2000, and Ellie82. You all keep me writing and put smiles on my face.

This chapter marks the start of the Mockingjay arc of the story. From now on, I will take the story off the book plot more than I already did at places. When I start writing this story, I've planned for the rebellion to turn out really differently from it did in the books, and for the ending to be (much) happier. I found myself pouring more energy into this part, simply because it's more of my own than the others and because I have to tie so many loose ends and finish many sub-plots I've started before. Do let me know what you think, though, if there's room for improvement in the plot - or if there's something I forgot to address. It would be much appreciated.

Anyway, enjoy! :)

**Disclaimer:** THG and its characters and its settings belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing. So far there're two minor O.C.s in my story. They belong to me.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty One: Gathering Forces**

**Johanna**

She was still sitting by herself in that dark alcove near the hovercraft cockpit when they landed. No one bothered looking for her, except Haymitch. He pulled her up without words and gave her a quick hug when he found her, their harsh exchange earlier seemed forgotten. As soon as she was enclosed in his arms, the tears she'd been holding all along fell out. Finnick and Ash's pains hurt, but the words that Katniss threw at her hurt even more. _Hate. Dirty liar._

She could stand being the world's most hated person. She didn't mind the world calling her a dirty liar. But coming out from Katniss's mouth, the words felt like daggers to her. For a brief, dark moment, she really wished she had died in her Games.

"Doll," Haymitch consoled her, rubbing her back up and down, "you know it's not your fault, don't you? They're just still too dazzled to see what's actually happening."

"Not my fault your arse," Johanna snorted through her tears. "If only I'd hurried my lazy bum up gathering those stylists, we mightn't have been too late. If only I hadn't been stupid enough to trust..."

"Stop talking nonsense," he chided her quickly, ruffling her already mussed up, dishevelled hair. "Chin up, back straight. Thirteen is waiting for their sassy rebel."

He lowered down his voice to a whisper, before continuing, "play their game well. That's all we can do now."

And so she pulled her pretense. High ballerina bun on her hair - hiding the mess and stating her 'class'. Haughty, cold expression on her face. She was the Victor they wanted to see.

Alma Coin - Commander of District Thirteen - would only meet Plutarch and Haymitch, so she was soon relegated to the deserted dining room, with seven clueless stylists, twenty even-more-clueless prep team members, Mags, Blight, and several other mentors they'd managed to grab before things got ugly. Johanna's heart ached once more, as it dawned on her that they didn't manage to grab any of the escorts. Effie was somewhere in Capitol, perhaps bearing the brunt of her Victors' insurgence...

She closed her eyes and prayed that Effie and Peeta would find each other, just so that they wouldn't be alone in whatever they were facing.

Loud footsteps and swearing and cries, and the dining room filled up. With a glance at the newcomers, Johanna realized that the fishermen and sailors from Four were there. Well, actually, the fishermen and sailors from Four who survived. Mags immediately joined them, receiving hugs from some of them.

One district saved.

The entire morning passed, before the next batch of refugees came. The lumberjacks of Seven. Swearing and brash and angry, with their axes and hatchets and battle cries. There weren't as many of them as there were fishermen. Something had definitely gone wrong in the rescue.

"Bloody bombs," she overheard one of them - a middle-aged man, with blonde hair and brown eyes - complaining. "Saw a house exploding to pieces. Fuck."

"Fuck," she echoed him. There had been this discussion about how Snow would bomb out the rebelling districts, when they were planning their escape. The plan was for rescue crews from Thirteen to pick the citizens up _just as _the Victors escaped the arena...

...and of course, Thirteen wasn't keeping the end of their deal. Why would they?

She jumped off her chair and ran off towards the dining room door and out of it, pushing people off and jumping over things. She heard someone - some people - shouting her name, but she didn't care. She had to get to Haymitch. The Old Man should know this. Snow fucking bombed the districts, and Thirteen deliberately turned up too late for rescue. She needed to get back to twelve. To Prim. To Gale.

"JO!"

The familiar voice, the familiar scream, stopped her in her track. And a second later, a pair of familiar arms engulfed her, pressing her to that familiar chest. Gale. Her boyfriend was here. Her boyfriend was alive.

"That bastard Snow stalled the rescue crew from Thirteen and bombed the whole district," he told her, as they broke apart from their embrace. Behind him and around them, she could see a sea of people pouring in. Olive-skinned, dark-haired, grey-eyed people. Her fellow Seam. Even though she didn't exactly look like them, she was Seam through and through. "We got some out, but not all. Prim and your mother are both here. They're with my family."

"Thanks," she croaked, burying her face on his chest, again. She would need to straighten him out, later, about where Thirteen stood in all of these, but for now, all that's important was that Gale and their families were alive. "Thanks."

A fair-skinned, fair-haired figure broke off the meandering line and stood next to them. Wheaton Mellark, breathing quickly and bandaged but fierce and determined.

"The soldiers told me Snow's got Peeta," he said, sounding more matter-of-fact than accusing. "Is Katniss alright?"

"She's here," Johanna answered. "She's fine."

Well, that was a lie. And yes, she was a dirty liar. She'd rather lie than admit to the whole district - the whole remainder of the district - that she had failed and her sister currently hated her.

Wheaton flashed her a conflicted smile and patted her on the back, before blending back into the crowd. The boy walked steadily, if not slumped as if the weight of the world lied on his shoulders, supported by Thom who was whispering something to him.

"His parents and older brother didn't make it," Gale quietly told her, circling an arm around her shoulders. "Most Merchants didn't."

"The Cartwrights?" she asked him. "Undersee?"

"Delly and her brother made it. Madge made it too."

"Their families?"

Gale again looked somber.

"We were all in Victor's Village watching the Games," he explained. "We... we'd never guessed that the rescue crew would get stalled by Capitol outside the district. When we finally realized what was happening, we only had time to grab those who lived at the edges of the Merchant Quarters."

And that meant Delly's parents, and also Madge's, were dead.

Her face must have fallen or something, for Gale squeezed her in another hug.

"We've got to make sure every survivor gets to the dining room," he said, firm and commandeering. "Let's go there."

She was too tired to argue, so she let him take the lead and take them back to the dining room. They were stopped, though, at the door, by a man in that grey uniform signature of District Thirteen.

"Commander Hawthorne and Mrs. Hawthorne," he greeted. For a while, Johanna thought Gale's mother Hazelle was behind them. But then the man's eyes were totally on them, and she realized that the Mrs. Hawthorne in question was her.

"Call her Ms. Everdeen," Haymitch sneered, appearing out of nowhere next to the soldier. "Girls nowadays, you know. Think they're strong and things, refusing to take their man's name. Her sister's the same."

"Alright then," the soldier said, looking conflicted but not asking further. "Commander Hawthorne and Ms. Everdeen. Your presences are required in Command and in the hospital, respectively."

"And that means?" Johanna asked tiredly.

"That means that he's going to Command, and you're going with me to the hospital." Haymitch cut in impatiently, grabbing her by her wrist. "Come here, before your Ma and those two big babies explode."

Gale kissed her quickly on the lips before they parted ways, and Haymitch grumbled out something which sounded like 'newlyweds'. As soon as the commotion was out of sight, though, the older mentor turned to her and started whispering.

"For all they know, Sweetheart's not the only married Everdeen sister," he explained, his eyes darting around as if watching for eavesdroppers. "You've also had your toasting. Well, you've actually had your signing, but your records burned down with the Justice Building."

"Why did you tell them that?" she hissed back, grabbing him on his collar.

"Figured out you'll go insane sleeping without your husband," he hissed, firmly removing her hand from his collar. "Not thankful yet, aren't you?"

And it was then she figured out that this crazily micromanaged society only let married couples share a room.

"My mother would be dead pissed," she said to him, once her brain adjusted to this new game. "Two daughters married behind her back."

"And so?" Haymitch responded casually. "It's obvious you'd never listened to her since your father passed. And before, if my memory's correct."

And it dawned on her that he was right, and that she was still concerned. Well, looked like she still cared of what the woman thought, after all.

A lift ride and several corridors later, they were in the hospital, which was jam packed and busy with commotion. Children and adults with burns and cuts were being wheeled in and out; moans and cries and screams echoing. Johanna rubbed her temple, for she couldn't deal with it. She hadn't slept in days.

"Hold it fifteen more minutes, won't you?" Haymitch scolded her. "I just need to prove to your Ma and Sweetheart and Little One that you're alive."

Prim literally jumped her when they met - despite being taller and slightly larger in frame. And something awakened inside her. She hugged her baby sister back, inhaling the smell she knew and taking in the sweet presence she'd gotten accustomed to. Prim. How could've she forgotten about this kid?

"Johanna," her mother called her, tapping her back from behind. "let me see your face. What was this?"

"Peacekeepers," Johanna lied, smoothly as she usually did. "Ran into them when I boarded the hovercraft."

The woman seemed to suck it all up, for she just got off to grab some ice cubes. Haymitch used the chance to open the door in front of them, wide. Without even looking, Johanna knew who it was. Katniss.

"Talk to her," the mentor told Johanna. "She won't have it any other way."

"She hates me," Johanna said. It was meant to be a flat comment, but came out as a whinge. "She said she hated me."

"Stop being a baby," Haymitch chided, pushing Johanna into the room. "You know she doesn't."

Katniss was awake, staring blankly at the ceiling. She reminded Johanna a lot of their mother during those 'checked out' years after their Pa's death. And it scared her, like anything.

"Brainless," she called her sister from the foot of the bed.

"Brainless," Katniss replied, turning to her. "You look pretty bad."

"Courtesy of you," Johanna responded, lowering down her voice so no one heard her. "Thank heavens I'm a dirty liar."

"You are," Katniss said. The younger girl's eyes started watering, though, as she made her next statement. "But I love you."

"You hate me," Johanna chuckled out, sitting down on the chair next to the bed. "You said you hated me."

"I do," Katniss admitted, "but I love you, too."

"Fuck, Brainless," she chuckled out again, feeling lighter now that she'd heard it twice. "So what are we?"

"Sisters," Katniss responded, without hesitation.

"You suck," Johanna said, though there was a smile on her face.

"You suck more," Katniss responded, smiling, even so slightly.

And then, right then, Johanna knew what she must do. She'd never thought she was planted here in this world for any particular reason, but now, she knew why. She was made to protect this girl in front of her, to help her sister be whatever she was meant to be in this world.

Her task, now, was to make sure they didn't use her sister as an unwitting pawn.

* * *

That night, Johanna made love for the first time.

Not in conventional definition, for her innocence was long gone, but in that she gave herself to the man she loved, in her free will, for the first time.

She was tired and shaken and grieving, and he was the same. They'd saved some people and failed more people, been hailed both hero and failures. In that sterile, cold-looking, minimally furnished room assigned to them, all they had was each other.

Except Johanna's mother, no one had asked what happened with her face - or figured out she had other bruises under her shirt. And Gale, Commander Gale Hawthorne, had his own set of cuts and bruises, on his face and underneath his shirt. They'd tended to each other with wet hand towels, wiping and cleaning and washing. And when it became apparent nothing was enough, she leaned on him and pressed their lips together.

One kiss led to another, and it soon wasn't enough for her. And it wasn't, too, for him. Last pieces of clothes shed, skins caressed, and she was literally gone. It wasn't until they laid cuddling afterwards, coming down from their highs, that she was back in the real world.

She'd assumed only herself - and herself alone - could give her that high. Now, she'd come to know that he, also, could. It was sad that she had to be screwed in the head, again, for it to happen, but also beautiful that she was finally able to give him that.

"Forever?" he asked her, looking down with a gentle, almost melancholic fire in his eyes.

"Yeah," she answered, smiling up. "As long as fate allows."

(And as long as fate allows it was, for them, such that every movie which included their characters would have this dialogue in it.)

* * *

As their initial days passed, and Johanna slowly recovered from her shock and guilt over the happenings in the arena, the deal - or whatever - they had with Thirteen had evolved greatly.

Haymitch, Mags, and Blight were there with her in the 'I-don't-trust-Plutarch-and-Thirteen-anymore' tribe, but as what Haymitch whispered to her in that hovercraft when he found her crying, they needed to play Thirteen's game really well. Resources-wise, Thirteen was all they had. They would definitely be doomed if they dared running away somewhere else; they had nothing to their names but a burning desire to oust The Capitol. And, all the villains and enemies in their games had leverages now, in the names of Annie Cresta, Caroline Mason, and Peeta Mellark. Snow, who had his stronghold on them and was rumoured to be torturing them - _of course _- and Plutarch and Coin, who was trying to hang the potential rescue mission in front of their noses to get them to comply. They needed to choose between the two, if they didn't want the three dead. And as messed up as it was, Thirteen was definitely better than The Capitol for the time being.

Thirteen's current deal was: 'get Katniss and the other young Victors to campaign and rally for the rebellion, and we'll save the three Snow had.'

"Alright," she played along, as they explained the deal to her. "I can do with campaigning. I have my end of the deal, though."

"And what is that, Miss Everdeen?" Plutarch asked her.

She looked at him and dug her nails on her palm in her fists, for she found it hard to restrain herself from punching the real dirty liar of the game.

"You're treating my sister like she's an actress or some crap like that," she answered, when she could still her voice again. "And each actress need a manager. I request you all to regard me and my husband as her guardians and managers. We're gonna get you all the campaign you need, but we'll have a say in what she needs and need not do."

She paused, and eyed them all from the corner of her eyes, before lowering down her voice, smirking, and continuing, "you all know what I can do, don't you? I control both Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne, in case you're wondering. I can make them work for you. I can turn them against you. You know I've been keeping them ensnared for years and years, don't you?"

Now, threats were surely a dirty way of winning a game, but this game was overall dirty. And she could see it working, as the people in front of her exchanged a look. They were probably marking her for early elimination now, but it didn't matter.

She would shield her sister, even with her life.

* * *

**Katniss**

She didn't know how she'd managed to pull through, but she lived one more day. And one more other day. And more and more, until suddenly, a week had passed.

There wasn't a second in the day that she wasn't thinking about Peeta. Her hope, her dandelion. To the world, her husband, after the toasting which had never happened and might never happen now.

Sometimes she would think of Caroline as well; strangely cheerful yet sensitive Caroline, who'd known as much about the rebellion as Peeta did. And Annie. Poor, sweet Annie. She'd overheard Finnick telling some District Thirteen officials - who were apparently "on the three Victors' case" - that he'd told his girlfriend nothing. That all Annie knew was Finnick was going to protect her, and she would get out of the Arena alive. No rebellion plan. No escape plan. No District Thirteen.

That was the first day they were here. A week later, there was still no news.

Gale - to the world and to her, his brother-in-law, despite the fact that her sister's marriage was fake - paid a daily visit, amidst his new military duties. And so did her sisters Johanna and Prim; though their visits often extended into this whole day of mindless games. Haymitch set aside an hour to talk to her every single day, though she still resented him for not being able to save Peeta all she could do was glaring. Visitors also poured: Cecelia, Mags, Blight, and the remaining Victors. Her room was almost never empty, even when she wasn't talking to any of her visitors.

And, whenever she was alone, she wasn't actually alone. There was her mother, working in her hospital like an efficient healing machine, being alive more than she usually was. And there were two other Victors who were also waiting for their loved ones to come back. Finnick, who spent his day knotting ropes, and Ash, who became quieter and quieter as days went by.

Looked like she didn't have time to simply be sad.

On the eighth day, she was deemed recovered and released from the hospital. Her sisters walked her to the Everdeens' living quarters once she'd changed into the grey uniform everyone else had on; Johanna holding onto her arm firmly as if she would drop any second, and Prim quietly guarding the only personal possessions she had with her. The parachute, Johanna's spile, and Peeta's pearl.

"Home!" Prim exclaimed, trying to sound cheerful, as they entered the bleak room. She frowned upon seeing the double bunk and single mattress; it only slept three people.

"Isn't Ma staying with us?" she asked her sisters, as she settled on the bottom bunk.

"Ma's staying with you," Johanna corrected, sounding careless while eyeing her with a foreign emotion - fear. "I'm somewhere downstairs with my husband, at the couples' sector. I've asked for a room for you there, but they'll only allow you there once Peeta's here."

"Oh," she commented, trying to suppress the lump rising in her throat. Johanna's luck invoked a strange bitterness she'd never felt towards her sister since their Pa died. Jealousy. What a luck Johanna had, her man surviving and was now with them.

"Aren't you jealous?" Johanna probed.

She didn't answer.

"Guess you are," Johanna spoke up for her, kissing her lightly on the temple. "I'll get off your face now. Take care."

She wanted to plead her sister to stay with her, but the fire burning her chest was too hard to contain. So, instead, she just turned her face away and let Johanna leave.

"Kat," Prim reminded, gentle as she'd always been. "Jo's as sad as you are."

"I know," Katniss responded warily, resting her cheek on the pillow. "I just... I just can't."

Prim patted her cheek. She watched her little sister, as the blonde girl made her way to their meager drawers and pulled a bundle out of it. Her Pa's hunting jacket. Her bow and quiver of arrows. Someone had saved all her prized possessions.

"Gale got your bow and arrows," Prim explained, as she held out the things. "And Madge grabbed your jacket from our old house."

"Madge," Katniss said, suddenly remembering her friend. "How's she?"

"She's coping," Prim answered, smiling sadly. "She and Delly are being promoted to Victors' Guards."

"Victors' Guard?" she asked, a mixture of a scowl and a frown on her face.

"Silly me," Prim chided herself, looking cross for a bit. "Kat, they want you Victors to visit the districts."

"What for?" Katniss asked. The bitterness in her own voice terrified her; she didn't like this person she'd become.

"We're totally at war," her baby sister explained further, settling down on the floor in front of her and looking up. "The Capitol and The Districts. The rebellion is burning. Commander Coin and Plutarch want you guys to help pumping up people's spirit."

She closed her eyes and exhaled. She couldn't do it. Not when she barely had any spirit left in herself.

Prim squeezed her knees, forcing her to open her eyes back.

"They're asking you to film some propagandas too," the younger girl continued, looking at her middle sister with wide, apologetic eyes. "They reckoned it would get things going faster. Jo's already shot her first two days ago."

She turned away. She didn't want any of those. She didn't want a rebellion anymore. She wanted her Peeta.

"Peeta," she finally broke down, unable to hold it in her anymore, "I want Peeta! Bring him back to me!"

Her tears streamed down her face like it had never been in years, as she crumpled onto the bunk, wailing and shaking. She was hurting, yet she was numb. She couldn't feel the world. Not even her beloved baby sister, who kneeled on the bunk next to her, body pressed to hers. She was a broken piece, and only Peeta could fix her.

She needed him. And that was the last thing she had in her brain, before everything turned blank.

* * *

The next thing she registered was laying down on the floor mattress, with a strong yet delicate pair of arms around her. Big, sad, watery brown eyes looking into her grey ones. Her big sister was with her.

"Welcome back, Kitty Kat," Johanna whispered, her voice soft and loving like when they were just children. "We're still here."

"Still here," she echoed, sitting up and grasping her sister's hand just to feel the reality. "Still here."

There was no one else in the room but the two of them. It was impossible to use any signs of nature to tell the time in this underground compound, but the dryness in her mouth and the stiffness of her body told Katniss that she'd been out for quite a while.

Johanna got up and poured a glass of water from the jug on the dresser.

"Here," she said, gently trusting the glass to Katniss's hand. "I know you're thirsty."

She chuckled at the remark, and her sister chuckled alongside her.

"How long was I out?" she asked after she had her drink.

"Four hours," Johanna answered, looking up at the ceiling. "The Brat and I were dead terrified you wouldn't come back. You looked damn straight like Ma did, that year after Pa died."

Her sister's answer snapped something inside her. She couldn't be like this. She couldn't be what her mother had been.

She couldn't abandon her sisters.

She couldn't abandon their fight for freedom, when she could still help.

"When are we going to the districts?" she asked Johanna, her body slowly warming up from the spirited fire burning in her chest.

"I'm going two days from now, for filming," Johanna answered, turning to her. "You don't have to go, though, if you can't. They can film Gale and I. Plutarch made us the new Poster Couple."

"I'm going," Katniss responded, grasping her sister's hand. "I can do it."

"Even with Gale and I?" Johanna blurted out, only to turn away in what looked like regret later.

"More so with you and Gale," Katniss reassured, swallowing the bile of envy and jealousy rising in her throat. "You're the only ones who can keep me from running away."

Johanna turned back to her, slowly, and said, "we're going to Twelve. Or, what remains of it, after Snow burnt it down."

Katniss bit her bottom lip, as her childhood memories flooded her. Walking to school with her sisters. Racing Johanna up and down the streets of the Seam, laughing like the little maniacs they were. Going with her Pa to the Merchant Sector to trade the games with supplies. Hiding behind Peeta's house in the rain, as he threw her some bread. They were all gone, now, without the trace. Like the innocent child she had once been.

"The other districts need to know what happened to our home," she told her sister, inhaling deeply as she stashed her past into the bottom of her memories. "And those bastards need to know they'll burn with us. I'm coming."

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for reading! Hope you like it. I'll see you on Monday (late Sunday for some of you) with the new chapter. For those who celebrate Easter, Happy Easter! :)


	21. Chapter 22: Invoking Spirit

**AN: **Hello all! Thanks for reading. Thanks to HgPeetKat and EisForElephant for putting this story in favourite list, and special thanks to ellie82, nothing2000, jc52185, and Norbert's Mom for their reviews. You guys keep me going and put smiles on my face.

The first part of this chapter is basically a visit to Johanna's thoughts and her stance about the propos. The second part gets Katniss to narrate what was happening to everyone in those initial weeks in Thirteen, as well as an event I would call pivotal for this story, a point of divergence from where the original "Mockingjay" book was heading. I would say this chapter is minimal in fluff yet a little angsty and emotional, for both the girls - Katniss especially - were confused and to some extent a bit broken. Hope you'll like what I wrote, though.

**Disclaimer:** THG is Suzanne Collins's. I'm just borrowing. My minor/side character O.C.s are mine.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty Two: Invoking Spirit**

**Johanna**

This place felt foreign, at first. The charred remains of houses and buildings and things. The charred, decomposed remains of what were once living, breathing creatures. She tried not to think about who they had once been, as she passed scores and scores of them laying on the streets. Of the nine thousand members of District Twelve's population, The Rescue Leaders had only managed to get a little over a thousand out.

Then, she started seeing things. The charred tall structure which was once someone's chimney. What looked to be a well, behind the ruins of a house. Gale, walking quietly next to her. And Katniss, her sister Katniss, taking each painful step forward, a few steps ahead of her.

The imaginary lines started appearing in her field of vision. And suddenly, she was fourteen again, walking to The Hob with her sister and their hunting partner, fresh off a great hunt.

This had been home. And this was still home, where all her memories lied.

The cameraman made a run towards her and began aiming the camera on her face. She gritted her teeth and kept moving forward, reminding herself that she'd done a similar thing before. If she could go through sexual coercions on a daily basis to keep her sisters alive, surely she could go through some stupid filmings and some district visits to save her mentee - her little brother -, her friend, and her best friend's girlfriend.

Coin and Plutarch's end of the deal involved sheltering everyone they'd rescued, providing armed forces for the battles they would fight, and arranging a strategic rescue mission for the three Victor tributes captured by the Capitol. Their end of the deal - Johanna and Katniss's ends of the deal - involved filming all these propos and doing district visits, gathering more willing participants in this rebellion.

"Nice one, guys," Cressida, their director of the day, praised. She pulled a small device out of her pocket and started jabbing on it, squinting at the screen the whole time. "Alright. We still need shots of you speaking about some places you used to know. Ideas?"

"Mellark bakery," Katniss murmured quietly. "That's where... where they lived."

"I'll do that one, if you let me," Wheaton, who stood guard behind them, cut in. Determined, yet fragile and sad.

"No," Katniss refused, lifting her face to meet the middle Mellark boy in the eyes. "I'll do it for you. I'll do it for him."

Wheaton responded with a sad, broken smile.

"I'll come with you," he said, reaching forward to plant a brotherly kiss on Katniss's temple. "We'll do him proud."

"Count me in," Delly added, stepping forward from her position behind Wheaton. "Peeta's my brother too."

"That's brilliant!" Cressida exclaimed. She turned around, and waved an arm in the air. "Cinna! We'll need more make-up for these two!"

Delly and Wheaton were soon whisked away to the side, pushed down to the fold-up chairs the logistics team had laid out for them. Johanna watched as Cinna started applying his magic on their faces. The stylist - who'd made it to District Thirteen a few days after she did - looked wary. Johanna was glad to find yet another member of this rebellion movement who wasn't totally in love with this propos and visits idea. She made a mental note to visit Cinna later when they're back at Thirteen, just for a little talk.

"Johanna," Cressida flagged her, "we'll need a place where we can shoot the story of you and Gale. Ideas?"

"Don't freaking kid me," Johanna snapped, turning impatiently to the woman. "I can't even recognize a single building, thanks to your fucking President. Do whatever you want, but stop asking me for opinions. You're not getting anything from me."

"Jo," Gale warned her wearily, grabbing her forearm to stop her from lunging at their director. "Stop acting like a kid. You're not helping with anything."

"You kidding me?" she spat at him, yanking her arm out of his grasp. "Snow's out to get the districts! And he has my friends! What are these fuckers doing about it? Shooting propos? Selling out sob stories? The Capitol doesn't hear your cry!"

"That's our line," Cressida suddenly barged in, snapping her fingers. "The Capitol doesn't hear your cry."

"Lord help me," Johanna muttered to herself, smacking her face in frustration. A tempting idea rose in her mind; she could just hijack the hovercraft, go to Capitol, get her friends out, and then...

...then she remembered she had nowhere to go, apart from Thirteen, now that there was a war going on. There was no way they could go anonymous after what was happening.

"Let's do the shot," she heard Gale saying to Cressida. His arm sneaked around her waist, squeezing it reprimandingly.

"Fine," she finally spat out, glaring at both her boyfriend - husband, for the sake of the current games - and the director. "Let's do it at the Justice Building. Or whatever remains of it."

"Justice Building?" Cressida asked, looking a little crestfallen. "Don't you have a place more... more personal? Where you first met? Favourite dating spot? Where he proposed?"

"No," Johanna said firmly, snarling at the woman. "Justice Building. That's where everything went wrong. That's where my life went wrong."

Cressida just looked at her. At first, she thought the woman was shocked. But no, it wasn't shock. It was more like... victorious. Like that look Volts wore during the Quell, when he started explaining voice distortions and stuff.

"Crew A," she instructed, turning to her team. "Follow Katniss and Wheaton and Miss Cartwright to the bakery. Crew B, let's get Johanna and Gale to the Justice Building. We have great stories to shoot here."

She was led - forced - towards what remained of the Justice Building. The facade still stood, miraculously. The reaping stage would look right at home there, with Effie and the reaping balls and everything else.

She drew in a sharp, painful breath, as she remembered Effie. Plutarch had told her, one night that her escort was still alive, somewhere in a Capitol prison. Johanna ended up dreaming of Effie that night, burning on a stake in the Capitol's City Circle, the jabberjays on the sky echoing her cries and screams.

"Jo," Gale called her, shaking her arm gently to bring her back to reality. "Focus."

She nodded and looked at him as he looked at her, lovingly and warily. Her ghosts and his stress over his new role as a rebellion Commander had taken toll on them. There were days when he would claim he didn't understand her at all, and there were days when she would say the same about him. Love, though, was one amazing thing. Her ego was huge, and she knew it. His ego was huge, and he didn't know it. But for each other, they could shed their egos. Even just for a bit, and not without fights.

"So," Cressida approached them, clipboard in tow. "I need to know your story, before we start. What's the story here?"

"There..."

"There was a girl named Johanna," Gale cut in, taking her hand in his grasp. "She and her little sister, Katniss, risked their lives everyday for their baby sister Prim. She took tesserae. She got reaped. She promised the boy who loved her that she would be his girl, if she came back. She went to The Hunger Games and won. She had to break her promise, because Snow wanted to sell her in exchange for her loved ones' lives. And she did."

Cressida nodded, jotting down the details as if they were simply technicalities.

"And where did the Justice Building come into play?" she asked, without even looking at them.

"The reaping day," Gale answered, squeezing Johanna's hand. "The promise she broke, she made it here."

"Alright," Cressida commented, skimming her notes quickly. "I think we're in the perfect place to end it for now. This would rile up the districts."

"Oh," Johanna said, her sarcasm and wit slowly coming back to her. "Thought we are your poster couple. How can there not be stories about us getting back together?"

"Patience, Johanna," the director explained, a gleam in her eyes. "You need to set the stage. Once it's up, we can continue with the drama."

"Sorry for my lack of Capitol sophistication, but I don't understand you," Johanna shot back, narrowing her eyes at the woman. "Set the stage? Continue the drama? It's my life we're talking about, Moron. Not some stupid soap opera."

"We can't show them the happy ending too early," Cressida explained. "They'll stop rebelling, if they knew things ended up happy."

"Happy?" Johanna asked. "What kind of happy? Have you seen my sister recently?"

"Her story's a different one," the director answered, beckoning the prep team to come and fix her and Gale. "We're gonna edit your stories together. Let's get started now."

And so, propaganda it was. They made her look sad and haunted, so sad and haunted she looked like a ghost. They told her to stand there, with the facade as her backdrop and Gale as a silent companion behind her. They told him to wrap his arms around her, and her to give him this sad, longing look whenever the story cued for it. Easy. It was all easy for her, and almost fun.

The fact that it made her felt like a filthy liar, though, took all the fun - and some more - out of it. All these propos were posing Thirteen as the good guy, whilst in reality it was just the same beast in different costume with Coin leading them.

_You'd better be alive, she said in her head,_ thinking about the three prisoners in Capitol._ Don't make me lie for nothing_.

* * *

**Katniss**

She finally got to watch the propo, together with every other Thirteen residents. They'd edited it to look like a professional movie, with intertwined scenes and background music and all. Everything was cut and re-blended, except that part when she sang The Hanging Tree and the birds fell silent. Apparently it was too magical, too powerful to be cut up.

Everyone gave her - and Johanna - sympathetic hugs wherever they walked now. It made her feel better, to her surprise, and though Johanna would berate endless about them, she could feel her sister's pain lessening too. Perhaps it was the hugs, perhaps it was the fact that Johanna and Gale were together in every aspect now, but certainly, Johanna had been better.

As for Katniss herself, she didn't know whether she was better or worse. She woke up, got her daily schedule (printed on her arm in a true district Thirteen fashion), shot propos, ate, trained with Johanna (they were way behind their friends in training, due to those dramas of their early days there), fit new propos costumes with Cinna, and spent time with her sisters and her friends whenever they were free. She hardly saw her friends, for they were always training or doing things, but every day, Prim and Johanna would spend time with her. On her good days, her sisters were her partners in crime. On her bad days, they were her punching bags - especially Johanna, who was more suitable a punching bag than Prim. On her neutral days, they would do visits to others. Beetee, who was now working in weaponry. Cecelia, who lived with her husband and three children who had all been successfully smuggled out. Finnick, who was now out of the hospital and staying with his mentor Mags, still knotting ropes at times but at least half functional. Ash, who was still in hospital and was almost constantly under his mentor Blight's watch, getting quieter and quieter to the point that he didn't make a sound even if asked.

"Get the Mason boy in the propos," she overheard Coin ordering Haymitch, one day when her mentor asked of how their Victors' rescue plan was going. "We would have been able to get The Capitol in more disorder, had we had all the Victors in the propos."

She didn't know what Haymitch told Coin or what happened in the hospital afterwards, but that very day, Ash Mason was forcefully moved to the special ward for extremely mentally unstable patients. She sat with Johanna on the floor in front of the locked door separating the ward from the rest of the hospital, holding her sister's hand as Johanna told her parts of Ash Mason's story that she had never heard before. At the end of the day, she thought she understood the man more than she previously did. When they were finally allowed to see him, behind the thick glass window of his observation room, she flashed him the three-finger salute. She didn't know if he fully registered what happened, but for a moment, she thought he looked at her; soft jaw, vulnerable eyes, and all.

Later that afternoon, she caught Johanna and Gale having a quiet, hissy argument in the woods outside the District Thirteen compound. She didn't know what it was fully all about, but the words "Coin", "everything", "trust", and "no" were thrown around a lot. She also didn't know who'd finally won, for she'd turned around and walk away before the real part of the fight began. All she knew was that everything was alright again the next morning, with Gale and Johanna sitting together at breakfast, her sister practically on her best friend's lap.

She decided not to give it too much further thought and moved along to thinking about what she could do for the rebellion, to free her Boy with the Bread and the two poor girls she'd learnt to know from Snow's clutches.

Three days later, they all departed to District Eight: Katniss, Johanna, Gale, and the rest of the Victors' Guards: Wheaton, Madge, Delly, and Thom. Coin sent off her right hand man, Soldier Boggs, with them. The rebellion was on in full force there, with near-daily air raids and machine guns and makeshift hospitals and all.

Beetee armed each of them with custom weapons. Sensoric bows and special arrows for Katniss, Gale, and Madge. A light ax which would just find its way back to its holster when asked to, for Johanna. Knives with similar principle for Wheaton and Delly, and a pick-ax for Thom as a homage for District Twelve's coal industry. 'Ecstatic' was perhaps not enough of a word to describe their reactions upon seeing the things. It was as if they all got new, shiny toys to play with, between the things and rifles issued by Thirteen.

(As they later looked back, they would finally realize that they were just children in a game of war. And that they weren't even players in that game; they were simply pawns. This fact would end up bringing them both regrets and consolations, intertwined in such a way it felt bittersweet.)

"Stay with me," Johanna quietly instructed her, as they prepared to disembark into the burning district.

She'd wanted to promise her sister 'always', but she couldn't. She hadn't been able to keep the one she made to Peeta.

Gale wouldn't let go of Johanna, and Johanna wouldn't let go of her, so they travelled in this tight pack of three. It felt like they were in the woods hunting again, except that it was now a battlefield and they were hunting humans, not animals.

"This is outrageous," Gale seethed, over seeing the chaotic streets and the wounded transported into the makeshift hospital. "All the years of keeping those fools clothed, and this is what they get."

"Yeah, yeah, got it," Johanna responded, glaring warily at her boyfriend. "The Capitol's a selfish, ungrateful, fucked-up bitch. You've been telling me this every night, Gale. And I've never said I disagreed, so just lay the damn thing off."

Gale scowled, but Katniss noticed his shoulders relaxing afterwards. It amazed her how much control Johanna had over him, over his anger and fire. Only Johanna could get him to stop, whenever he started all his 'fuck-you-Capitol rant'.

They finally made it to the makeshift hospital. The sight made Katniss lightheaded. There was too much blood, too much injuries, too much misery in general. Families gathered over mothers and fathers and small children in the cot. Everything was just so messed up.

"Katniss!" a small girl shouted, running to her with a smile so wide yet so sad. "You're really alive!"

"I am," Katniss responded, chuckling at the kid's naivety and enthusiasm. The girl couldn't be older than six or seven, judging the two newly-grown front teeth. Her clothes were dirty, and her hair was messy, but she was fine otherwise. And serene, so serene it brought Katniss peace.

The kind of peace only Peeta could bring.

Another girl - taller, yet similar to the little girl - rushed to them.

"Behave!" she hissed at the little girl, grabbing her hand. "Don't run to them like that."

"That's fine," Katniss quickly reassured, patting the older little girl on the arm. "Don't get angry at her. Is she your sister?"

"Yes," the older little girl answered, placing her hands on the little girl's shoulders protectively and reassuringly. "My little sister. She's just seven."

"And how old are you?" Katniss asked, curious.

"Eleven," the older sister answered, sounding flat and matter-of-fact.

Someone rushed from the hospital's front door, dodging beds and people, before coming to a quick halt in front of them. Another girl, looking older than the two little ones but definitely not older than Prim.

"Are they bothering you, Comrades?" she asked, almost apologetically.

"Nah," Johanna answered for them, looking intriguedly at this third girl, who wore the rebel armband and carried a rifle which looked too big for her body. "They're just saying hi to my sister."

The girl with the armband turned to the two younger girls and glared at them.

"I told you two to stay put," she said, her tone dangerous and commandeering. "How hard it is?"

"Geez, Kid," Johanna cut in, tapping the rebel girl on the shoulder, "give your sisters a rest, wouldn't you?"

And then it dawned to Katniss, that this third girl was yet another sister in the family. The oldest, most likely, judging the fact that she was a kid yet toting a weapon.

"Where are your parents?" Gale asked them, a look of disapproval on his face.

"Missing," the oldest girl answered, shrugging as if it was no longer relevant. "Most likely gone. Their workplace got bombed."

"How old are you, missy?" Johanna asked the girl. "Twelve?"

"Thirteen," the girl corrected, sounding important. "But I'm oldest, so they let me fight."

"Do you want to fight?" Katniss asked, unable to contain herself anymore.

"Yes, I do," the girl answered, without hesitation. "It's better than trying to run away, anyway. Where are we gonna go? Thirteen's no longer sending rescue hovercrafts."

She sounded young, yet at the same time so old.

"Come with us," Katniss blurted out, looking at the three girls. She didn't know why she said that, really. She'd just known them for a few minutes. Yet it just came out of her mouth, just like that. "You can stay with our mother. We're away most of the..."

A blast from outside, some swearing, and the thirteen year old straightened her slouched back.

"Looks like they need me there," she said, running off from them. "I'll be back later!"

A woman - most likely a family friend or so - whisked the younger girls away from them, leaving them with their propo to shoot. And so they did. Katniss relented as a 'representative' from Eight guided them through the hospital. She stopped whenever they all stopped, spoke to whomever they thought she should speak to, did whatever was required for the propos. Johanna and Gale shielded her from utterly outrageous requests, the whole time. There seemed to be a consensus between her sister and brother-in-law to not let her do everything the propos team asked.

To not let her do everything Alma Coin wanted from her.

The memory of the fight she witnessed replayed in her head, as they made their way out of the hospital and to the wrecked district centre. The rebellion commander for Eight greeted them there. They all called her 'Commander Paylor', and instantly, Katniss knew they all liked her much better than they liked Coin. This woman seemed genuine and caring beneath the fierceness and that leader-aura - that charisma. She looked like someone who could lead Panem towards the better.

(And yes, Commander Paylor - later President Paylor - would lead Panem towards the better.)

Johanna decided all Plutarch's scripts were lame, and Katniss couldn't agree more, so together, they made their own scripts - or outlines, really, for Katniss didn't really speak to a script. The one for today was conceived yesterday, and so far was Johanna's absolute favourite. It was something Katniss had apparently said a few weeks earlier, as she came back alive from the aftermath of the Quarter Quell.

'And if we burn, you burn with us.'

The cameras started rolling, and she took a deep breath. She'd never really had to address the public - or anyone - before. Throughout her childhood, Johanna spoke for her, and after the victory, Peeta spoke for her. These propos were really new to her, and she still felt nervous at times, but now wasn't actually the time to be nervous. It was time to burn.

And she was ready.

"BOMBERS COMING!"

The collective shout stopped the whole commotion. Turning to the source, Katniss saw a bunch of District Eight rebel soldiers, running and swearing. Someone grabbed her arm and dragged her, and soon, she was running along. She didn't even have to turn to figure out who it was. It was her sister, Johanna.

"Don't just fucking stare like that," her sister hissed, once they stood behind the machine guns with all the other rebels, on the top of one of the tall buildings. "They'd be more than happy to drop it straight on your head."

"That's why you're here, right?" she replied wearily. "To drag me away from my own stupidity."

"Brainless," Johanna responded.

The subject was quickly dropped, for the bombers were really coming. They could see them in the skyline, in V-formations alike to that of geese flocks. Around Katniss, the rebels all fired shots. Someone grabbed her and forced her crouching on the ground, again, she didn't have to look up to figure out who it was. Judging the fact that Johanna was thrown to the ground next to her, it must have been Gale.

"Stay here," he ordered, as he stood in front of them both, attending one of the machine guns. "We're gonna shoot them down."

Katniss sprung up to help him, but was forced back to the ground by her older sister who glared annoyedly at her.

"What. are. you. doing?" Johanna asked her, emphasizing every word. "I tried to keep you alive, so quit being suicidal."

"I'm fighting my fight," she answered, looking at her sister. "Let me."

And with that, she sprung up again, running away from Johanna and Gale. She heard someone screaming her name, but she didn't care. She just had to fight.

She found a spot among the District Eight rebels. The battle suit - Mockingjay suit - Cinna designed to her stood in stark contrast with the rebels' bloodied, tattered clothing, but she didn't care. And they didn't, too, as they were too preoccupied trying to shoot down the bomber planes.

Some of her special arrows were explosive. She grab one of them and attached it to her bow, aiming it to an incoming V-formation. And release. And that was it. She took one down.

She took one more. And another one. And another one. Until they were all gone, and someone said, "that's it."

Exhaling, she took the sight of the aftermath before her. People screaming. Things burning. More wounded people being carried.

... away from the makeshift hospital.

A strong claw grabbing her shoulder, and she was turned, forcefully, around to face her grabber.

"What's wrong with you?"

She looked on, as Johanna's lips trembled and tears started streaming down her sister's face.

"What's wrong with you?!"

She just looked on.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, BRAINLESS! ANSWER ME!"

"Jo, come on. Gather your wits. She's fine," Gale said, gently taking Johanna into his arms. He'd been standing behind her the whole time, watching their fiery interactions. "She's a rebel, just like you."

Johanna muttered something she couldn't hear, and a second later, bursted into tears in Gale's embrace. The look he gave Katniss as he gently patted Johanna's back was somewhat indecipherable. Between annoyed, angry, and proud.

Behind them, she could see the rest of the Guards approaching. Wheaton, Thom, Delly, and a limping, pale, grimacing Madge, supported between the boys.

"Guys," Wheaton said, looking around them quickly. "We'd better get it done and go. Things look dangerous here."

It did seem like a good idea. They all made their way back down to the grounds. And it was only then Katniss realized something. The makeshift hospital was no more. All that left was a burning rubble of a building, and families and friends screaming for their loved ones on the streets.

"The girls!" she said, turning to Gale. "Do you think they made it?"

"There was no chance of escaping," he answered. His grip on Johanna's shoulder tightened; perhaps for her, perhaps for himself. "It happened too fast."

A small figure dashed past them, screaming two names she didn't quite catch. The young rebel girl, sister to the two little girls in the hospital. She watched as an older rebel boy grabbed the poor girl, yelling to her that it was all over.

She didn't realize she'd sunk in shock, until Delly grabbed her and pulled her back up.

* * *

She wasn't fully aware of anything which went on, until she was back in Thirteen, laying on Johanna's bed with her big sister's face hovering above her.

"Welcome back, Brainless," Johanna said. It was intended to be weary, Katniss knew, but there was a hint of gentle joy in her voice that Katniss couldn't miss. Her sister was actually glad.

"Thanks, Brainless," she responded, smiling a lopsided smile at her sister. "What happened after... after I checked out?"

"The propos crew came back," Johanna answered, handing her a glass of water. "You were too out of it and we needed it quick, so Gale and I covered up for you. Hope you don't mind me stealing your airtime."

She drank the water and waved her sister off, for she couldn't care less about the propos. If she had a choice, she'd rather not appear in any of them and just go save Peeta and the girls.

"Are the others fine?" she asked Johanna, realizing that it was only them in the room.

"As good as new," Johanna answered. "Except Undersee. Some kind of fragment got embedded in her side. She'll be in the hospital for a bit, but it's nothing serious, really. The last time I checked, she was deep in Morphling Wonderland, so I doubt it would be much use visiting her now. Oh, and I managed to bend Boggs and take that soldier girl back with us. I know you would want her here."

"How's she?" Katniss asked quietly. Something snapped, again, inside her, as she imagined the girl's pain. No. Not imagined. Felt. She could see herself in that uniform, in front of the burnt hospital, wailing for Prim. In an alternate reality, she could have been that soldier girl. No, not only that. Johanna could have been that soldier girl, and her, one of the poor little girls inside the hospital.

"Slowly accepting it," Johanna answered, looking away. Katniss knew her sister was hiding an expression she wasn't meant to see. Johanna must have realized what she'd just realized. "She's in the hospital ward. Prim's keeping an eye on her."

"We never asked what her name is," Katniss said, looking away as her eyes started watering. "Or that of her little sisters."

"Doesn't matter," Johanna responded. "She's broken now. Her sisters are dead. Will your name still matter in that case? They can be Johanna, Katniss, and Prim. Who knows."

"Johanna!" Katniss hissed. "Don't say such thing! You scare me!"

There was silence, as Johanna inhaled deeply.

"Katniss," Johanna finally said, turning to her. "I can mollycoddle you forever, but that won't be good. The world is a dangerous place, right now. Who knows who dies tomorrow."

"Jo..."

She didn't know why, but she started crying. She felt thirteen again, watching her big sister in that cruel Games, saying things would be alright though she didn't quite believe it.

"Ssh," Johanna consoled. Katniss relented as she was taken into Johanna's embrace, once more. "Don't cry. Hell knows it solves nothing. Just watch where you walk. Don't..."

A loud slam cut the sentence off. Gale was on the door, rushing and harried.

"Jo!" he shouted at them. "Catnip! Come here quick! Peeta and Caroline are on TV!"

**to be continued...**

* * *

****Thanks for reading everyone! Hope you like it. I'll see you later this week with the next chapter. Till then, have a good week! :)


	22. Chapter 23: Knowing Your Enemy

**AN: **Hello all! Thanks for reading. Welcoming my new follower DeLoverly. Special thanks to Norbert's Mom, jc52185, and peetagoreantheorem12 for their reviews. You all keep me happy and motivated.

This chapter is kind of chock-full with information. And it won't be the last one of that nature, for we're nearing the end and it's time to tie the loose ends. I'm trying my best not to make things too confusing, but do let me know if it gets too overwhelming. I'll try to slow down :).

Hope you all enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The Hunger Games trilogy, and all the characters and settings you recognize from it are the brainchildren of Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing. There are several minor O.C.s featured in this chapter. They're all mine.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty Three: Knowing Your Enemy**

**Johanna**

The journey from her room to the broadcast control room felt really long, despite the fact that they were running all along.

"It's just like a victory interview," she heard Cressida, the director, analysing as she barged in. "The setting, the order of events, everything. The way they're dressed."

Turning to the television, Johanna saw it for herself. Everything was truly there. The audience. The stage. The raised platform with sofas. The giant screen playing recaps of the Games. Caesar Flickerman and his hair. And, of course, the Victors. Well, two of them, to be exact. Dressed in Capitol fineries, looking as fresh and good as new.

Yet something wasn't right.

Caroline Mason and Peeta Mellark were definitely not that skinny.

... and not that _fidgety_. Well, like other human beings, they _did_ fidget, but, no, they definitely didn't have severe fidgeting disorder. There was definitely something off.

For a split second, she had this thought-slash-hope that what she'd just seen were just doppelgangers. But then, a close-up of their faces filled the screen, and all the thought and hopes just disappeared. She'd spent long enough with both of them to be able to tell them apart from body doubles or whatever it was called.

She let Katniss be as the younger girl ran up to the screen and started touching it. Although it was, to tell the truth, ridiculous, she knew her sister needed it. Heck. It had been a month since the Arena. For a girl who usually saw her man every single day, Katniss was doing better than Johanna expected.

Someone slid next to her. At first, she thought it was Gale, who, having run with her and Katniss earlier, somehow disappeared once they were in. But no, it wasn't him. It was Finnick.

... or the half-filled shell of Finnick, the thing which had been hovering around since Annie got captured.

The person she'd been trying to speak to for the whole month, but somehow never really got through to. Whenever they talked, Finnick seemed to ask more about her life - and spoke less about himself. Not because he spent his whole day in his room knotting ropes, Johanna knew. Finnick was always full of stories - a perk of being good in bullshitting. Snow had broken her friend. No, not broken. Finnick had been broken long ago, before Johanna had even met him. Snow had _shattered_ her best friend.

"Annie's not there, Finn," she decided to say, for Finnick's hope was unbearable to feel. "Sorry."

"I know," Finnick answered. It sounded empty, and from the corner of her eyes, Johanna could see the frayed rope in his hands. Even with his eyes on the screens, he couldn't stop knotting. "I came here for Caroline and Peeta."

A few seconds passed in silence, as they sat with their eyes on the screen.

"How's Ash?" Johanna finally asked. She normally visited the man whenever it was allowed, but today, she was deep in propos during the visiting hours. It wasn't really a visit, for the nurses didn't allow her behind the glass observation window. She just stared at her red-haired friend, as he stared back at her with broken, sad brown eyes. Not the most exciting kind of visit, but it was the only time she could see Ash, and thus she kept doing it. Finnick, on the other hand, was the nurses' favourite and thus always allowed in. Sometimes, Johanna would stand outside the room holding Caroline's photo, as Finnick sat next to Ash's bed, just so that the four of them could be together again. It was pathetic, but what could they otherwise do?

_Looked like Katniss wasn't the only one with useless habits, after all._

"Still the same," Finnick answered, his eyes on the screen and his fingers knotting. "Doesn't answer, even to his name."

"Are they still chaining him?" she asked, deliberately louder than necessary to grab the attention of any District Thirteen soldiers around. To say that she wasn't happy with their protocol of chaining up any patients who'd had meltdowns was an understatement. She was furious. Especially because, so conveniently, the protocol had just been in place for three days when Ash's meltdown-or-whatever-crap-that-was happened.

"No," Finnick answered. "He'd been stable for several days in a row now, so they'd removed the chain. He's still under watch, though."

Johanna clenched her fists, for she knew what was actually happening.

One of the perks of being a chronic liar was that you could spot your fellow liar when you saw him or her. And Johanna saw through Alma Coin straight away as they first saw each other in person. She was sure she wasn't the only Victor experiencing it, though she never really discussed it with anyone. As long as Dear Alma was happy with them using her resources to transform this hell-hole called Panem, Johanna was happy to shut up and let the woman do everything she wanted. She made a point - which she thought Dear Alma might have figured out - to shield people she cared about from Alma's exploitation, as much as possible. It was hard at times, but at least she tried. Ash's predicament was an example of something she'd messed up. She knew Dear Alma was as wary and scared of Ash as much as she was wary and scared of Johanna. And yet Johanna didn't move fast enough, didn't put any precautions to stop the manipulative woman from hitting Ash hard at the centre of his mental issues, so hard that the man totally snapped.

Oh, well. There would be time to deal with that, later - she would make some. Now, it was television-watching time.

The screen was still split in two, showing the two Victor tributes and the Quarter Quell recap they were all watching. A nice way to catch up with the Quell, in Johanna's opinion, for there were surely moments that she'd missed due to not being in the Viewing Room. She found it hard not to get too inappropriately excited about those last few hours - after Chaff's death - that she'd missed. Even though she was a meanie, by many people's common definition, she surely wasn't heartless enough to ask her devastated sister and friends about what the heck happened.

And those hours turned out pretty interesting. She sat there and listened intently as they all made what seemed like suicide pact.

"Fuck," she heard Finnick muttering next to her. "I should've said something."

To tell the truth, everyone's acting - apart from those of Peeta and Ash - was just so terribly unconvincing that Snow would definitely be able to sniff what was going on. However, Johanna didn't believe the main blame was on them. It was simply Plutarch and Coin's plan to leave some Victors behind, just so that they could have the rest vulnerable and compliant.

She just put an arm around his shoulders, though, for blabbering about the truth wouldn't help. Finnick was already depressed. And she needed him. She needed her friend. The only friend she'd got now, with Caroline in Capitol's captive and Ash deep in his despairs.

From somewhere across the room, she could see Gale glaring at her. Stony as usual, with a hint of... jealousy in his eyes. Even with the full knowledge of Finnick and Annie's relationship, even after Johanna had given herself fully to him, Gale was still jealous of her male friends. A word to describe him was possessive, and though it annoyed Johanna at times, she secretly loved it. Him being like that made her feel precious, way far from the lowly whore she was made to be.

She didn't move her arm, mostly for Finnick's sake, but partially just to rile her boyfriend - the whole husband thing was stupid she decided to no longer refer to Gale as that in her head - up. The stronger she showed herself to be in front of him, the more he'd actually listen to her and give her opinions a thought, and she needed him to do that now. He wasn't going to work for Alma Coin, at all, even when the woman's plans sounded good. It's Johanna's personal vendetta to make sure it didn't happen.

The Quarter Quell moments drew to an end, on the screen, with that one last lightning. And the focus was now solely on Peeta and Caroline, who looked more distracted than ever.

"Peeta Mellark and Caroline Mason!" Caesar _bloody_ Flickerman exclaimed, as gregarious as usual. "Welcome back to the stage!"

Now, as if the two weren't acting weird enough, they were totally silent. Something was definitely amiss here.

"We all know that the last Quarter Quell ended in an unfortunate... mishap. Peeta, would you tell us what happened in your alliance?"

Peeta looked sideways - and visibly tensed - before looking back at Caesar and started speaking.

"Something unexpected," he said. "Brutus. He found us. At that point, it was Finnick, Annie, and I, for Cecelia and Beetee had... had chosen their spots along the wire. He grabbed Annie and ran with her - didn't know what was in his mind, but he did. Finnick and I ran after him. At one point, I lost Finnick - I didn't know where he went. Then I caught up with Brutus and stabbed him to free Annie. We were on our way back to the wire, when the lightning stroke and the arena collapsed."

"What a story!" Caesar exclaimed, looking amused. There was something in his eyes Johanna couldn't shake, though. Fear.

Caroline fidgeted in her seat. Now, Caroline could be fidgety at times - but not in this uneasy, terrified way. She was usually giddy. Not mousey.

"Now, Caroline," Caesar said, turning to the girl. "We knew that you went with your brother Ash and The Girl on Fire Katniss Everdeen. What happened at your end?"

"I...," Caroline stuttered out, looking agonized. "I... I can't really remember. We started heading back up to where everyone were supposed to be, but then Katniss went berserk, the arena collapsed, and I got separated from them. I don't know."

A second later, her eyes darted sideways and widened, before quickly moving forward again.

"Actually, I saw something descending above us, and then Ash grabbed Katniss and ran off. Then something grabbed me. And that was it."

"So," Caesar continued, looking at Caroline. He maintained his composure, but Johanna knew fear too well to miss the one flashing alarmingly in his eyes. "Beetee, Cecelia, Finnick, Ash, and Katniss were taken out of the arena by a group of rebels who intend to take over Panem and change the way it is run. Among the rebels are your fellow Victor and Katniss's sister Johanna Everdeen, and other more senior Victors, notably Haymitch Abernathy of District Twelve. Have you been made aware of this plan?"

"No," Caroline answered. Her eyes darted sideways again, but this time, instead of tensing, she gritted her teeth. "No. I really thought my brother was calling for a suicide pact."

"We've got you assessed for suicidal tendency, Caroline," Caesar said, picking up a file from the table. "And it says that you are definitely not suicidal. It is interesting, considering your answer earlier. Why did you agree to participate in the pact?"

"Because...," Caroline said, pausing after a bit. "Because... my brother promised me he'll get me out. I thought... I thought... he was going to trick others into dying with him so I can come out."

Johanna threw a look at Finnick, who in turn looked at her. The thing Caroline had just said was a standard alibi they had agreed on in case anyone got caught. Now that Caroline had used it, Peeta had to come up with something else, and Annie, poor Annie, might not even be able to use her real story.

"Won't you miss your brother if he died?" Caesar asked.

Johanna saw Katniss clenching her fists. She had to admit, though, that she too thought whoever made the interview script was a true bastard.

"Ash...," Caroline answered, looking sideways again. "Ash... wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he couldn't save me. I would live for him, even if it means I would miss him every day."

Now, that one was real. Even with all the ranting and frequent eye-rolling, Johanna knew Caroline loved her brother more than she loved any other living person.

There was no more time for thinking about poor Ash and poor Caroline, though, for Caesar had moved over to attack Peeta with questions. Again.

"How about you, Peeta? Do you know about the plan?"

There was two seconds of pause. Then, Peeta slouched on the couch, lifted his head to look at the camera, and said, "No."

Thank heavens for Peeta Mellark's acting talents.

"Then why didn't you try to save your wife Katniss?"

_Great. Just great_. Johanna stood up to stand with her sister near the screen, as Katniss's eyes started watering.

"Because... because I know none of us would be able to forgive ourselves for living, if our friends die."

"Ah!" Caesar exclaimed. "Always so nice. It's such a pity that Katniss herself decided to foil the pact and save herself at the last minutes."

Now, that was the ultimate insult. The tears started falling down Katniss's face, as Johanna clenched her fists again. The bloody presenter had just insulted her sister's loyalty. She swore she had never had a bigger desire to punch Caesar Flickerman on the face.

"We believe in humanity," Peeta commented. "And I don't believe Katniss did that to save herself. She was most likely trying to save..."

And then there was that eye-darting again, to the side of the room, and he was back looking at Caesar.

"Anyway, I'd like to call for ceasefire," he continued, sounding so much unlike himself. "There's too many casualties already. Just... just surrender yourselves. This hasn't bring Panem good."

And whatever happened after that was unimportant, for a small riot broke in the broadcast room.

* * *

"That's not him," Gale said, resting his chin on his clasped hands. "That's not Peeta."

"But that's him," Johanna responded dryly.

They were in their bedroom, locking themselves up after escorting Finnick and Katniss back to their rooms. It hadn't been the easiest of trip. Finnick was beyond upset and Katniss was beyond shocked. At the end, though, they managed. They'd left Finnick in Mags' care, and Katniss in Prim's. As much as she'd wished to stay with her best friend and her sister, Johanna had to fight all her desires. Right now, she just needed to talk to her boyfriend.

And thus there they were, sitting on the mattress of their bed with their standard-issued District Thirteen grey uniforms on.

"When are we rescuing them?" she asked Gale, looking up at him.

"When we'd fulfilled the end of our deal and shot a propo about your friend Ash Mason," he answered. He rested his chin on his hands, again. "But what we'll get when we rescue, I have no idea. Ceasefire. To get Peeta to say that... I don't know what they put him through."

"What is he supposed to say?" Johanna sneered. "Go on with the rebellion? Whoever they kept at the side of the room would have been shot in the head."

"That bastard Snow," he commented, punching the mattress of their bed.

"Coin's no better," Johanna responded, reminding him. "We're all alone now. There's no one to trust but ourselves."

He didn't answer.

"Gale," she called him, gently but firmly turning his face to her. "What have you been doing all along?"

"Not much," he answered her. "Just some weaponry stuff with Beetee."

"What are you making with Volts?" she drilled him.

"Everything that we're using now," he responded, pride in his voice and on his face. "And... and some things in the making."

He paused for a bit, as the pride slowly drained from his face.

"But I don't think I'll continue with that after today."

And suddenly, she knew _what_ he was actually talking about.

"Have you been making bombs?" she asked him, looking up sternly.

"Yeah," he admitted. "I'll tell Beetee to forget about that one, though."

"Good," she praised him, somewhat chiding and somewhat sincere. "I have lots of feelings about that one, and they're all bad."

"That Penelope girl who lost her sisters in Eight," Gale said, turning forward to the wall in front of them. "How's she?"

"Don't ask me, Hawthorne," she responded, surprised at the tremble in her voice. "You're a big brother, for God's sake. You must know how she's feeling."

He looked really, really agonized. But she let him be, for he needed to feel that. He needed to feel that to see what kind of trouble he could land them in.

"I'll go talk to Beetee the first thing tomorrow," he decided, as he started taking off his shoes. "Let's just go to sleep now."

"No," she stopped him, a firm claw on his forearm. "Put those goddamned shoes back on, Hawthorne. We're talking to Volts. NOW. There's no time to waste."

* * *

**Katniss**

It's probably past midnight, and her mother was asleep. And Prim was, too, asleep. It was her, and only her, awake in the room.

And she couldn't take it anymore.

She was surprised she didn't check out, like what happened to her earlier that day and a few weeks ago when her grief upon losing Peeta took her over. She didn't know what the difference was, at first. To see him visibly tortured and threatened and calling for Ceasefire like that, it was as devastating as knowing he didn't make it out of the Arena.

But, as she quietly crept along the walls of the compound's corridors, she slowly realized what it was. Hope. She had seen him, witnessed him alive. Alive and speaking.

Her soul fed on the hope of seeing him again, someday. Someday, soon. They would rescue him from Snow and his minions.

It didn't take her long to decide where to go. After seeing Caroline on the television earlier, she just had to see Ash. Somehow. She had to tell him his sister was alive.

"Soldier Katniss Everdeen," she said to the door guard, although it might not be at all necessary. With all the propos and fiasco, there was no way he wouldn't know who she was. "I'm here to see a patient."

"And who these patient is?" the guard asked back.

"A..."

Someone stood behind her.

"We're here for Soldier Margaret Undersee," the familiar person said, secretly pinching her middle to get her cooperation. "She got injured in mission earlier today."

Thank the universe for the annoying, bizarre, endearing older sister named Johanna.

The guard let them in. As soon as he was out of sight, Katniss led Johanna to the right corridor. The one which led to the special ward Ash was kept in.

"Patience," Johanna warned her, as she was about to barge in through the locked steel door. Katniss stood and watched, as her sister pushed her aside - with neither gentleness nor forcefulness - and started knocking the door. Knock, knock, knock. Then pause. Then knock, knock, knock. And a long pause. Then another single knock.

At first, it looked like nothing had happened. Then, someone opened the door for them. Katniss didn't initially recognize the eye and the hair above it. As the person behind the door recognized them and opened it wider, though, she realized who it was. Blight, Ash and Caroline's mentor.

"I told him about her," the mentor said, standing there at the door. "He cried."

"I see," Johanna responded. "We'll leave him alone, then."

"Thanks, Johanna," Blight said, quickly squeezing Johanna's shoulder. "I'll send you a message when he's better."

"Thanks."

With that, Johanna dragged Katniss away from the door.

"He's crying, Jo!" Katniss hissed, once they were back in the common corridor of the hospital. "We - you - should have gone in and see him!"

"No," Johanna countered, calm and cold. "Me and him, we're the same. No one sees us cry."

"Hope you can stop punishing yourself for being human," Katniss grumbled, sadly and affectionately.

Johanna didn't respond. She led Katniss another way instead - to one of the common recovery rooms. There, on the only occupied bed in the room, laid Madge. Pale and dazed, with a drip attached to one of her arms. Her eyes were open. But, somehow, she didn't recognize them when they walked in. Looked like Johanna's earlier words about the blue-eyed girl being in Morphling wonderland was right. Madge was definitely out of it.

"They'll wean her off it," Johanna explained, as if she'd just heard Katniss's thoughts. "She'll be back to normal in a few days."

Katniss just nodded, for she had no other reaction to make.

They spent a few minutes staring at Madge, before stalking their way out of the hospital. Katniss assumed that they were going back to their respective rooms, but turned out they didn't. Johanna caught her wrist and stopped her from pressing her level's button.

"Stay with me tonight."

"How about Gale?" Katniss hissed back.

"He's out sorting his own mess," Johanna explained, very quietly Katniss barely caught it. "He can sleep on the floor when he gets back."

And thus, there they were. Back in Johanna and Gale's room, which had their scents and imprints, blended into one.

"Take the other side," Johanna instructed, as Katniss set down on the left side of the bed. "That one has had more actions going on it."

Katniss groaned, for she could picture her sister and her best friend at _it_, suddenly.

"What?" Johanna asked her, raising a playful eyebrow. "It's not like I'm your mother or something."

"You're as good as a mother to me," Katniss muttered, ducking her head under the pillow for suddenly she couldn't look Johanna in the eyes. "Have all kind of things you want with Gale, but don't tell me, OK?"

Johanna laughed that evil laughter and pinched Katniss on the butt.

The distraction only kept Katniss entertained - and annoyed - for a few minutes. Once it all faded into memory, the thought of Peeta and the Capitol broadcast earlier consumed her again.

One thing she did a lot after they arrived here was closing her eyes to remember her Boy with the Bread and the way they used to be. Remembering the little things which made him Peeta, the little things which made them Peeta and Katniss. But now, when she closed her eyes, all she could see was the Peeta she'd just seen on the screen. The concerned, thin young man calling for ceasefire.

She opened her eyes and tried to start over, but she couldn't. The broadcast just wouldn't get out of her mind.

"Brainless," she heard Johanna murmuring, two hours or so into her attempt of sleeping. "Stop tossing and turning. Go the fuck to sleep."

"I can't sleep," Katniss answered.

She didn't know why it came out as a whinge, but surely, it did.

Johanna rolled over and sighed.

"Here," she said, extending her arms, "come to Joey."

And that was how she ended up falling asleep, fifteen minutes later. In her sister's arms, distracting herself from her thoughts of her boy.

* * *

Katniss was still in Johanna's arms when they woke up the next day. And Gale was still nowhere to be seen. Johanna insisted he would be alright, though, so Katniss just made her way back to the Everdeens' living quarters for a quick clean before going through yet another day.

They stayed put in Thirteen for the next week or so. They didn't shoot any more propos, for there was no story to be told currently. Katniss heard they'd wanted to do one with Finnick and Ash in it. Well, with Finnick being all depressed and knotty, and Ash down in the loony ward, none of them was in the right angle to be shot. And thus it was a quiet week for them all, with time to actually train for battle, visit friends, and just spend time together.

"What did Jo make you do that night, after the... the broadcast?" Katniss asked Gale, one day when they got some minutes to spend in the woods.

"Get rid of some stuff," Gale answered, without explaining more of what he actually did.

And that was the end of it. Since then, Katniss had been trying to find out about "some stuff", with no avail.

After a week, it was now time to fly out again. This time to Ten, to, as Johanna sarcastically said, "say hi to some cattles". Katniss's prep team and Cinna came to prep Katniss and Johanna for the propos they were shooting, whilst Peeta's prep team and Portia - whom Johanna managed to snatch from Capitol during the Quell - handled their Victor Guards: Gale, Wheaton, Thom, and Delly. Madge wasn't coming with them. Although she was healing fast, and was off morphling, she had temporarily been declared "unfit for duty". Whoever did that, and whatever that actually meant, no one knew. They just knew Madge had to stay back this time.

"Here are the polished boys," Johanna whispered sarcastically, as they saw their Guards approaching them at the boarding platform. Well, to tell the truth, Johanna was right. The boys were prepped and polished, to the point that they got their fingernails done.

"How often did you guys have to go on that Base Zero thing?" Wheaton asked - no, whinged.

"As often as needed," Johanna answered, winking. "It gets enjoyable after a while, actually. Sometimes I deliberately tried to get hairier just to annoy my prep team."

"That's not nice to them," Delly said, frowning. Like the boys, she looked polished. A bit more polished, even. Katniss had no idea how on earth a soldier would have such perfectly shaped eyebrows and perfectly smooth, unblemished face. But at least the costume and hairstyling looked real, and thus it wasn't poor work on behalf of Portia and the team. Must have been a great effort, for Katniss knew they were almost as stressed out about Peeta as she was.

"Who says they were all nice?" Johanna spat back. "Venia was the only one nice to me, and she didn't do the hair part, so I didn't bother."

"Where are your other two now?" Katniss asked again.

"They went up the rank after Snow sacked me from his Pleasure Squad," Johanna answered. "The last time I checked, one of them was with District Two, and the other one with District One. Apparently prepping Johanna Everdeen got you really far in your career. Oh well. They belonged in those districts anyway."

No one asked further questions, for it was clear what kind of people Johanna's prep team members were.

The hovercraft arrived, and they all climbed in. Katniss found herself dragged to a seat between Johanna and Gale; they each had one of her hands throughout the flight. Through her distraction and nervousness about District Ten, she could see a sad, spaced out Wheaton - he'd watched the replay of Peeta's interview, a few nights prior - and the two others, talking with their heads close to each other. Delly and Thom. Together. She hadn't seen it coming. With guilt and embarrassment, she realized she hadn't talked to Delly in weeks. But, well, if there was love and hope to find in this situation, then let it be.

"Looks like we have a new poster couple here," Johanna whispered, winking.

"Good," Gale answered, warily. "I'm kind of tired playing this tragic boy with stolen girlfriend."

They then started arguing about something, which Katniss didn't bother trying to pay attention to.

District Ten turned out to be more fun than it could have been. The generous citizens snuck them all - including the camera crew and the guarding district Thirteen soldiers - some delicious beef stew and glasses of milk. A far better cry from the tiny scoops of goop they served at Thirteen. With most of the other districts rebelling, Ten was pretty much ignored by the Capitol. Didn't mean that their visit went too smoothly, though. The District Thirteen guards had to shoot several Peacekeepers, and they all had to hid from a suspicious surveying hovercraft. However, the district was pretty much intact, as if nothing had actually happened.

"Oh well," Johanna said dryly. "So much for preparing that Capitol-doesn't-hear-your-cry propos. Look how well they're doing."

"Yeah," Katniss agreed.

They ended up doing a somewhat silly propo telling the story of how Capitol took the best from the districts and left them with the worst, and on how wasteful Capitol was of that best resources which could do the districts good.

The journey back was pretty much like the journey there, except that they were all content and happy and not arguing. The happy bubble was pretty much bursted, though, once they landed at District Thirteen to a sneering Haymitch and a distraught Blight.

"District's on lockdown," Haymitch explained, as soon as they were all out of the craft. "He disappeared."

"Ash?" Johanna blurted. Looking at her sister, Katniss realized Johanna was in full panic mode. She looked just like she usually did each of those times after Katniss checked out.

"Yep," Haymitch answered. "Your best friend - or second best friend, or whatever - Ash Mason, hit a nurse in his head and stole his outfit, then jabbed a guard with sedative and stole his uniform and gun. He's been on the run for three hours now."

"Seriously," she heard Gale commenting, "has he actually been depressed?"

Johanna's glare - and that hard slap on Gale's face - told Katniss that her brother-in-law-or-somewhat wasn't going to get anything for several nights.

"You should lay off that jealousy," she told him, once her sister and Haymitch and Blight disappeared from sight in their bid to find Ash. "Jo loves you. And has always loved you. They had two and a half years to make it happen, and nothing happened. They're just best friends. Like you and me."

"But he touched her," Gale seethed, clenching his fists and bowing his head. "He fucking touched her."

"When?" Katniss asked, surprised and wary. "When they were both on duty?"

Gale looked away, telling Katniss that she was right.

Katniss sighed.

"Stop being a jerk," she chided him quietly, a few seconds later. "I don't think they would've done it if they had any other option."

Gale opened his mouth, about to spit out yet another retort, but the announcement echoing through the hall beat him to it.

"Attention citizens. Extremely unstable mental patient Soldier Ash Mason had been located in the forest surrounding the districts. We have locked all the doors to the compound for your safety. We have deployed a team to handle this situation."

As soon as the announcement finished, Katniss broke into a run.

"Where are you going?!" Gale shouted at her.

"They're gonna kill him!" she explained, without even turning around. "We've got to get to him before they do!"

She didn't expect him to follow her, but a few seconds later, he'd run alongside her throughout the corridor, telling her that they were even more similar than she'd thought they'd been.

* * *

It took them a while to find a door which could be tricked open, and when they managed to finally get to the forest area, there were already a crowd gathering in the clearing.

"Coin's insane," Katniss fumed out, as they walked their way through the crowd. "This many people outside, and she locked the doors up. What would they do if Capitol bombs us?"

Gale didn't answer, though Katniss could see the slight change in his expression. He was giving her argument a thought.

She slipped through the side and into the forest, and he followed her quietly. There was quite a drama brewing somewhere deep in, if her ears got it correctly, and thus she followed the sound, him in tow. As soon as she stumbled upon a pile of gray clothing and men's underwear, she knew they were heading the right direction. She only knew less than a handful of people who had no problem getting stark naked in the open, and Ash Mason was one of them.

"Crap," Gale commented, as they ran past the pile. "I can see your argument now."

Whichever argument it was, it was a good thing that Gale finally agreed with her. And thus she just kept quiet and kept running.

The figures and shadows in the distance became clearer and clearer, and soon, they found themselves standing among the besieged gunmen, a few trees behind the one Finnick Odair was currently standing under. The bronze-haired Victor had never looked more dishevelled. His hair stuck out all the possible way around, and his eyes darted wildly between the gunmen and the tree above him.

"Please don't shoot!" Katniss heard him pleading the squad. "I'll get him down soon. Really!"

He then turned to the tree and looked up, an agonized, conflicted expression on his face.

"Ash," they heard him saying, "please come down. Now. We're going to find Caroline. We're going to get her. She'll be devastated if she finds out you're dead."

A hoarse, wild voice from above the tree shouted something Katniss couldn't comprehend.

"Catnip," Gale commented, somewhat quietly, after the voice died down. "He's going to shoot himself."

"NO! ASH! DON'T!"

Finnick's scream turned Katniss's attention back to the tree. She watched as Finnick started his attempt of climbing up, only to be defeated by his own dwindling level of fitness. Her legs lunged forward in reflex. However, someone caught her arm, restraining her. One of the gunmen. Next to her, another guard was doing the same to Gale. They had no hope of getting there now.

She closed her eyes and turned away. She didn't want to see him falling.

A soft click, then a soft thud. Then loud gasps, followed by restrained laughters. The gunman's grip on her arm loosened, and she was free.

"Catnip," Gale whispered to her, placing his hands on her shoulder. "He's alive. We saved him."

"What do you mean?" she asked, her eyes still closed.

"Someone got him with a tranquilizer gun," he answered, something which sounded like amusement in his voice.

"Who?" Katniss asked again.

"See for yourself."

She opened her eyes and turned her head, slowly, towards the tree. There still stood Finnick, but this time, he wasn't alone or shouting. Ash's limp, naked body rested against him, back to the crowd everyone could see what happened. There, right there on his backside, jut out what looked like a syringe with red end.

And, a few feet from him, stood a red-faced, yet stoic Madge, holding a gun in her hands.

Katniss didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or cry.

* * *

"He's lucky the gun didn't get triggered when he fell off," Gale commented quietly, as they all retired to his and Johanna's room later for an urgent secret meeting later.

"Stop being a dick, you jerk," Johanna snapped, glaring daggers at him. "My friend almost died. And what are you doing? Making comments? Your jealousy is unbearable, Hawthorne. Really."

"Deal with your marriage problems outside this, won't you?" Haymitch shot warily, eyeing the two. "I didn't call everyone else here to help you with that. And Doll, The Old Kid is right. Big Mason got really lucky this time."

He winked at Madge as he finished his sentence, causing the beet-red girl to blush even more.

Katniss sighed, as moments like this, chaos like this, made her miss Peeta more than anything else. He always knew to make things better, to make things alright. Between Gale, Johanna, Haymitch, and herself, all they knew was how to cause chaos and riot. It was all in their blood.

(In a few months, she would know better than that. But of course, right now, with a hazy mind, she only knew that.)

"Leave the girl alone, won't you?" Mags snapped in. Now, here was one more funny thing. They'd just realized that Madge and Mags were both actually called "Margaret". It wasn't an uncommon problem to have the same first name with someone else, but, still, Katniss felt a bit awkward imagining how her brave yet timid friend and Finnick's kind yet feisty mentor had shared a name.

Delly, Thom, and Wheaton chuckled at them from the far side of the room. The three were incredibly quiet, especially for Delly's standard. Could be that they were still way too overwhelmed over the fact that they were in the middle of a Victors' convention, albeit the fact that they'd been Victors' Guards for a while. Could be that they were speechless over the case they were examining now, too.

Someone had _drugged_ Ash Mason.

_Twice._

The first time was a little bit over a week ago. It resulted in a violent tantrum, and ended up with Ash getting exiled to the special mental ward.

The second time, which was supposedly sometime earlier today, resulted in the manic hallucination which caused all the fiasco and nearly killed the man.

They wouldn't have found about it at all, if it wasn't for that girl soldier from Eight that they transported here after the bombing last week, Penelope Spinner. She was the one who had hid under a stretcher placed on the hospital's corridor in a bid to save herself from her own thoughts, and saw a suspicious figure entering and getting out of the special ward. The one who had made a new friend in Madge, and roused the blonde, blue-eyed girl in her hospital room after she saw the thing.

Fingers had been pointed left and right afterwards, as the shaken and terrified doctors and nurses put the blames on each other. However, since the beginning, Johanna had only one direction to point her finger at.

Alma Coin.

There was this argument - from Gale of all people - that Johanna just hated the District Thirteen commander too much that she blamed everything on the woman. But then Mags spoke up, bringing up the point that Coin made this deal that if Ash did a propo, they would go and save the three captured Victors, and suddenly everyone was struck with enlightment.

Coin didn't want to free the prisoners. She had gotten all that she wanted, and she didn't need Annie Cresta, Caroline Mason, or Peeta Mellark.

And somehow the woman disliked Ash Mason, so much that she wanted him gone.

She certainly wasn't there to help them.

She was there to win the war, at all costs.

They had two enemies now.

Snow and Coin.

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for reading and making it here :).

I'll see you later this week, with the next chapter. We're definitely getting closer to the rescue mission, so hang in there!


	23. Chapter 24: Coming Back to Life, Pt I

**AN: **Hello. Thanks for reading. Welcoming my new followers booklover110, peetagoreantheorem12, ThisMortalCoil, and megycool2. Thanks to peetagoreantheorem12 and ThisMortalCoil for putting this story in favourite list, and special thanks to my reviewers peetagoreantheorem12, jc52185, Norbert's Mom, and ellie82. Each and every of you means a lot to me.

This chapter focuses more on personal relationships and resolving conflicts and mysteries. The Battle of the Capitol is drawing near, though, so there would definitely be more action in the future. Anyway, enjoy this! And let me know what you think, or if something is odd or off.

**Disclaimer:** THG trilogy, its settings, and its characters belong to Suzanne Collins. I own only my modifications to the plot, some unnamed, non-speaking really minor characters, and four minor O.C-s: Ash Mason (D7), Caroline Mason (D7), Penelope Spinner (D8), and another one you would see in this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty Four: Coming Back to Life, Pt. I**

**Johanna**

It was happening. They had finally shot an Ash propo. She knew it wasn't what Coin had wanted - and Ash himself would go after them with his ax once he realized what they had been doing when he laid knocked out on the hospital bed - but they'd got a propo about Ash now, and that meant they'd fulfilled the end of their deal.

The mission to rescue the three prisoners was happening.

She sat there watching herself and Finnick talking about their friend and the details of their ordeals, as they hijacked the Capitol network to air their Ash propos. The whole time, her head was cradled in her hands - mentally, for no one could see her less than stoic and composed, physically. She didn't like the way she sounded, at all. She wasn't one to rat out someone's private secrets to the public. But she had to. It was either that, or not getting Annie, Caroline, and Peeta out before it was too late.

She could live with Ash hating her because of her big mouth. She couldn't live with Finnick, Ash, and Katniss hating her because their loved ones died in her hands.

She couldn't live with hating herself, because her loved ones died in her hands.

They aired the propo to everyone, in the dining room just after dinnertime - perfect timing, she must say. Dear Alma knew how to hit her - and Ash - hard on the face, without even being there physically. The woman was the reincarnation of evil itself.

People's reaction after the propos was generally priceless. If Snow wasn't already the most hated man in Panem, surely he now was. One more district began rebelling. The rebels remained in Seven - which was the second most bombed out district after Twelve - began wreaking more havoc than they already had. Some Peacekeepers got skewered by rebels in district Four - now, this wasn't entirely a stomachable news, but good enough that a small smile appeared on Johanna's face. It happened when she was alone, and it creeped her out, but she guessed she hated Snow and his minions enough that such a horrendous thing became justified. It didn't make it right, but it made her human. And she was pretty content being human.

The personal reactions that Johanna got afterwards, though, wasn't something she particularly enjoyed.

She already had lots of stares from everyone, wherever she went. Now, they seemed to stare at her more, with a mixture of pity and disgust in their faces. Everyone who personally knew her came to her and gave her one of these tearful hugs - including Madge Undersee, who was once a love rival of hers. The worst of it all was her own mother. The woman dragged her to the Womanhood Doctor - Johanna forgot what they were called - 's practice chambers, pushed her onto the bare-it-all chair, and _examined_ her for any damages left by the fucking Capitolites. She ended up spending those fifteen or so minutes staring straight at the ceiling, for it brought bad memories and, as shameless as she seemed to be, just was plain embarrassing.

The worst, though, came at the end of the thing.

"Johanna," her mother called, quietly discarding her used gloves. "Do you remember them performing any medical procedure on you?"

"No," she answered, cold and harsh from the humiliation. "Not after I woke up after my Games."

The woman sighed.

"They did something to you," she said afterwards, squeezing Johanna's hand gently. "You'll need a surgery to reverse it."

"Yeah, yeah," Johanna responded sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Is this one of those stitch-the-seal-back-on thing? It's the most wasteful thing on earth, by the way, so, no, I'm not getting it."

"No," her mother answered. "It's... it's more serious than 'the seal'."

She paused for a while, as if considering whether she should say it, before continuing, "they don't want you to ever get pregnant."

For a while, Johanna could just stare blankly at her mother. They didn't want her pregnant. _Of course_. Not to a client. That would be a scandal. Then, the anger started escalating rapidly in her. Those bastards were butchering her body and she had not even the slightest idea about it.

"Fuck," she hissed, jumping up on her feet. "Fucking hell."

Her mother caught her on the wrists, just before she was about to have a fit.

"Calm it down," the woman ordered. "I've been working with this doctor here, and he mentioned to me once that this thing can be reversed. We can get it done if you want."

And so they got it done, a couple of days later, with the help of a Womanhood Doctor Johanna's mother knew. It wasn't, to Johanna, about being able to have children. She still wasn't keen about them; having sent and lost four kids into a death-match when she was still herself a kid. It was about seizing back control of her body from the _freaking_ Capitol. It was about owning herself. It was about breaking free from those bastards who'd been haunting her dreams on and off.

Her mother had sat Gale and his mother down, when she was in surgery. Apparently Gale had exploded so crazily and stormed out of the room and into the woods - _typical of him. _But his mother, his sweet yet strong mother Hazelle, had apparently been so understanding. There was still something in her eyes Johanna saw every time she saw Gale and Johanna together - a little bit of disappointment that Johanna was returned to her son _used_, Johanna worked out. But the woman was there in the room when her sedation wore off, standing behind her mother, smiling gently at her.

Gale came for a visit later that night, with a bundle of pine needles - she'd loved those things, ever since Caroline started bringing some to their Capitol apartment - in hand. His eyes were red and swollen, and there were bruises on his knuckles. There was no doubt that he had been rampaging as rumoured.

She'd expected him to start ranting, at least, but the he just bent over her and kissed her gently. And it was then she knew that she had no more reason to doubt him, or herself. They loved each other. Sure, he was possessive, angry, and irrational at times, but he loved her unconditionally. And she loved him. Nothing else mattered.

Coin, _freaking _Coin, sent her a rose, though, when she was finally allowed back to her quarters. It became clear, right then and right there, that the woman really hated her. Perhaps more than Snow hated her. The fact that both Coin and Snow hated her amused and at the same time disturbed her. She never really intended for herself to be liked by any kind of leader. Nevertheless, she still wondered why on earth she had the luck of being the enemy of the two reincarnations of devil in Panem.

"Why do you leaders always hate me?" Johanna asked Gale, that night when he got back to their quarters.

He chuckled.

"Jo," he then said, kissing her on the temple, "we don't like people who can't follow orders. And that's how I would describe you. You can't follow orders."

"So," she said, a sly smile on her face, "are you trying to say you don't like me?"

"Well," he answered, looking down into her eyes, "I don't need a woman who would just say yes to everything I say."

She fell asleep happy that night, but woke up pretty angry, as she found him gone with no trace but a note on the dresser.

'In a mission rescuing Cresta, Girl Mason, and Peeta from Capitol. Prediction is a week, but I'll be back as soon as possible.'

* * *

**Katniss**

As she sat down on her bunk in the Everdeens' living quarters, she wondered why on earth Johanna and her were sisters.

Since she was little, she'd known that Johanna was always irritating and somewhat annoying. But today, her sister was just plain insufferable, and she found herself staring at the older girl, as Johanna went on and on about how Gale and the boys had left them girls out of the rescue mission.

"Stupid, stupid misogynistic, chauvinistic men! Just because we're girls doesn't mean that..."

"Jo," Katniss interjected, unable to bear with the ranting anymore. "We've got it. It's the tenth time you go on about it. Now, if you could just stop, please."

She was met with a deadly glare, but the ranting stopped afterwards, so she guessed it sort of worked.

Johanna was the only person in the room who could talk today, so as soon as she stopped, the air was once again silent and thick with tension. It had only been a few hours since the male members of the Victors' Guards departed for this mission getting Annie, Caroline, and Peeta out of the Capitol, but for Katniss, it had felt like days. No. It felt like forever.

And now her head was full of what-ifs.

What if they couldn't find Peeta or one of the girls? What if they had all been cruelly mutilated, or killed? What if they came back as depressed as Ash Mason had been? What if none of them remembered any of their loved ones? What if Gale and the others got captured themselves?

A familiar hand on top of her head snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Can I borrow your thinking cap, Brainless?" Johanna asked, squeezing the top of Katniss's head.

"Damn it, Jo," Katniss grumbled out, rolling onto her stomach and ducking under the pillow. "Leave me alone."

But Johanna didn't leave, and thus they spent the whole afternoon snapping at each other, in front of an amused Prim and a distraught, confused Delly who was fretting for Thom and Wheaton and Gale and Peeta and even Annie and Caroline whom she'd never met. By the time dinner came, Katniss had had enough of all of them and straight out refused to come out for dinner, throwing a pillow at Johanna when her older sister asked her to go have dinner for the tenth time.

"Fine!" Johanna snapped back, throwing the pillow back at her. "Don't go look for me when you're starving later!"

And true, Katniss didn't look for Johanna. It was Johanna who went looking for her later, panicked and dishevelled.

"Kitty!"

Katniss pretended to be asleep, as her sister shook her.

"Katniss!"

She was still too annoyed to react.

"Brainless! Peeta's on TV again!"

And this sent her shooting straight up and out of the door, not caring if she was only in her sleeping clothes.

The room was jam-packed - everyone was there - and their heights - or lack thereof - made it difficult for them to see past the crowd. After a minute or two of trying to crane their necks, Johanna gave up and grabbed Katniss by her wrist, sneaking and weaving past the crowd until they were finally close enough to see.

The sight on the screen wrenched Katniss's heart. As before, there was Peeta and Caroline. If they were a tad bit skinny in the earlier broadcast, they were definitely skinnier in this one. Sunken cheeks, gaunt eyes. Bruises hidden underneath make up - and still peeking out. Constant trembling and fidgeting, and again, that constant glance towards the side of the stage.

By this time, the interview was near finished. Peeta was again calling for Ceasefire - with that same argument about humanity and how it didn't do anyone any good. And Katniss again refused to believe. She knew her boy. He wouldn't have said such thing.

"Alright, Peeta and Caroline!" Caesar exclaimed, ending the interview. "Thanks for your time tonight! Hope you..."

Another voice - a female voice - echoed from the speaker. Caroline. Saying something in some other language Katniss didn't understand.

"Pardon me, Caroline!" Caesar exclaimed again, turning to the unusually silent girl. He looked dead terrified. As if something was going to go really wrong. "Could you repeat that? I didn't quite catch it."

Caroline said the thing again, and loud swear echoed. Not from the speaker, but from a woman standing near Katniss.

"What's that?" another member of the crowd asked.

"He's gonna..."

Before the woman could finish, Peeta's voice had taken over the room again.

"Rebels at District Thirteen," he said, firmly and unwaveringly, "Caroline was just saying that you will all be dead tonight."

And all hell broke loose, both in the crowd and on the screen. The last thing Katniss saw, before the screen went blank and the stampede around her started, was blood spraying on the camera.

* * *

They all ended up spending their night in an underground bomb shelter, deep in the belly of the compound.

The thing had apparently been built specifically for this purpose: as a hiding place, should the Capitol attack. It hadn't been in use since it was built, ironically, aside from in evacuation drills. Katniss guessed Thirteen didn't actually need it as long as they kept their end of their pact with the Capitol and played dead.

The shelter itself wasn't something spectacular; just another dull part of this dull compound, even duller than the rest. It was practically a dark, concrete bunker, divided into numbered sections where you were supposed to stay with your family. Some people got lucky with sleeping bags and mattresses, some other had to bear with the floor. Some people could just rest and listened to the blasts up there at the ground level; some other had to run around making sure everyone was fine.

And Katniss was stuck in between being the first type of people and the second.

Her mother was in the Medic team, and consequently, Johanna was the official person in charge for their family. However, since Gale was away and Johanna was, for all district Thirteen records, his wife, she was too responsible for helping Hazelle Hawthorne with the three younger Hawthorne children. Now, Johanna wasn't supposed to exert herself after that surgery she had a couple of days ago, and Katniss once again found herself volunteering for a sister. It wasn't that big of an act this time, though, and Johanna actually did some work, so it wasn't entirely her. She just had to help her sister dragging some supplies around and talk to some people, and that was it. In some sense it was good, because it took her mind away from the Capitol, the loved ones it detained, and the other loved ones who were in a mission to free the detainees.

"Have you seen Ma?" Johanna asked her, when she came back to their little patch of sleeping area after doing the last drop-off to the Hawthornes.

The question took her by surprise. Johanna hadn't referred to their mother as 'Ma' since their Pa died, and wasn't usually concerned of where the woman was.

"Nope," Katniss answered, plopping down next to her sister. "Does your, ugh, stomach hurt? I can find you a... a... Womanhood Doctor."

"Nah," Johanna responded, pulling a leg close to her chest. "I'm just wondering. And don't you call any of those freaks for me. I swear they've never learned how to use their fingers."

Katniss stayed away from the subject for the rest of the night, for Johanna had surely planted images in her head.

Johanna was out as soon as they settled to sleep, hugging their baby sister Prim like she would their old childhood ragdolls, but Katniss somehow couldn't conquer her wakefulness. She watched as a big group from the hospital shuffled by, led by one of the medics. Among them were Madge and Ash - who walked side by side - and that soldier girl from district Eight with dead little sisters, Penny, who walked in front of them. They were being moved to the corner of the bunker, from the look of it. A few short minutes later, Finnick strode past, right to the direction the hospital group headed to. He must be visiting Ash, again.

Thirty minutes and no sleep later - even after stroking the orange fur of the unwilling, begrudging Buttercup - she decided to get up and join Madge or the two boy Victors, just to take her mind off the rescue mission.

She found them straight away. Huddling close together, with the girl soldier from Eight, tying knots. The soft whispers told her that they were discussing something. Or, more exactly, Finnick and Madge were discussing something. Ash and young Penny remained silent, in a rather eerie way.

"Hey," she whispered, as she plopped down to join them.

"Hey," Finnick whispered back, looking up and handing her a piece of frayed rope. "Here's your rope."

To tell the truth, she wasn't expecting to be invited into this knotting circle, but nevertheless, she took the invite and started knotting. It turned out to be what she needed, for it took her mind away from the rescue mission. Between trying to make different types of knots and trying to copy Finnick, she didn't even manage to catch the full extent of Madge and Finnick's conversation. All she knew was that they were talking about the war. Or what to do afterwards, if they won and if they lost. Thinking so, so far into the future, when the immediate reality was still pending.

"I really hope you get her back," Madge said, in the middle of a conversation. "You're made for each other."

"Let's hope so," Finnick responded, his voice frail and weak it was almost unbelievable that he was that boy who'd trapped his opponents and stabbed them with his trident. "I don't know what to do without her."

Katniss didn't know what they discussed next, for she chose to tune out the conversation for her own sanity.

"Oh, hi, 'scuse me."

The sudden greetings startled Katniss. Someone else had joined them.

'Someone else' turned to be a boy, looking close to her age, in District Thirteen soldier uniform. Bow in hand, guitar strapped around his body, his dark eyes moved between them - and eventually settled on Ash, who had stopped and tilted his head up.

"I've got these for you," the dark-eyed boy said, gesturing at the bow and the guitar. "Pity it takes a bombing for me to get them to you, but anyway."

Ash's arm - skinny and pale from the lack of use and sunlight - trembled as he extended it to receive the bow, but the look on his face spoke of recognition and determination. Katniss watched quietly as he fingered the bow - carefully, almost too carefully - and clutched it so firmly as if it was his life - or that of his sister's.

"This against the wall?" the boy asked again, pointing at the guitar.

"Let me take it," Madge offered, standing up to receive the thing. The boy gave it up just like that, though there was a slight pain in his eyes that Katniss couldn't miss.

"Alright, then," he said, turning on his heels that all the could see was the back of his standard grey uniform and his straight, jet-black hair. "Your granny's heirlooms back with you. Catch you later, Soldier Ash Mason."

He was greeted by silence. And then, a few seconds later, hoarse and soft, Ash responded, "catch you later, Soldier Sven Lee."

Katniss didn't know how much information she'd just received.

* * *

Johanna nearly strangled her - out of a Victor's habit - as she sneaked up on the older girl, but the fact that Johanna was now fully awake made it up.

"What is it this time?" Johanna snapped, clearly unhappy that her sleep was interrupted. "Has the ducks taken over the world?"

"Worse," Katniss answered, though she wasn't sure whether it was entirely true. "Ash has a bow."

"Huh?" Johanna asked, clearly bewildered.

"Your friend, Ash Mason, of District Seven, has a heirloom bow."

Johanna just looked at her as if she'd just grown horns on her head.

"You're seeing things, Brainless," the older girl decided afterwards, waving Katniss off. "Let's go back to sleep."

"No," Katniss insisted, grabbing her sister's arm forcefully. "Some boy from his district brought it to him earlier. You should come and see."

Johanna sighed and muttered something about insane people.

"Look," she said afterwards, snapping her head back at Katniss. "Just because he's from Seven, doesn't mean that he can only use an ax, right? What's wrong with him owning a bow? You're being an idiot, Brainless."

"It's only wrong because you have heirloom ax, Jo," Katniss finally spat out, relieved that there was finally a crack for her to fit the rest of her point in. "It's like... it's like... you're switched around."

Johanna cackled upon this notion, so hard that Prim shot up awake and looked at them confusedly.

"That boy can't shoot, Kitty!" she said in between cackles, holding onto the concrete wall to steady herself. "He's freaking pathetic!"

Katniss sank onto the floor, as she took in even more information. Slowly but surely, the overwhelmed feeling started fading away. Johanna was right. She was just overdrawing some incomplete conclusion.

Johanna sank next to her, still shaking with laughter, circling an arm around her shoulders.

"Don't you worry, Katniss Everdeen," she said, leaning close to Katniss and briefly rubbing their noses together. "We're blood related. They drew blood from everyone when we arrived here and checked for claimed relations and stuff. I'm definitely related to Ma and you and The Brat."

"Hey!" Prim reminded angrily, from her spot in a sleeping bag. "I can hear that!"

"Whatever, Brat," Johanna waved the younger girl off, causing Prim to huff and turn around.

"She's getting really sassy," she then proceeded to tell Katniss, whispering so loudly Katniss was sure Prim could hear it. "I don't know where our sweet baby sister has gone."

"She's taking after you, surely," Katniss responded, knowing it was the right time for the small revenge. "You're such a bad example."

"Guess I am," Johanna said carelessly, smirking.

They sat there in silence for a while, before Johanna got up and grabbed the family heirloom ax from the pile of her belongings. Gale had saved it along with Katniss's bow and arrows, and gave it back to Johanna once they were in Thirteen.

"Okay," the older girl said, holding out the ax. "Are you still worrying over this and that bow a weird boy gave Ash?"

"Guess so," Katniss admitted as she took the ax from Johanna, as the scenarios started running in her brain again. "I... I think we're the only family in Twelve to toss axes, Jo. Can you think of anyone else?"

Johanna frowned in thoughts for a bit.

"Nope," she finally answered. "It's not big back home. It's very... very Seven, actually. Ash said I nearly gave his mentor cardiac arrest when I started throwing that ax in my Games."

"Do you know if archery is big in Seven?"

"Nope," Johanna answered, again deep in thoughts. "I don't really know. From what you can see in the Games, though, Sevens don't normally go for the bow and arrows... Except that one time when that was the only thing Caroline could get..."

And suddenly, Johanna's face changed, as if something had finally caught up with her.

"Caroline," the older girl quietly said, standing up and pacing up and down. "Caroline made one of her Games kills with a bow and two arrows."

"Are you saying that the bow might be hers?" Katniss asked. A storm brewed in her head from all the revelations, she took in a longer breath than usual to still her thundering heart.

"No," Johanna answered, sarcastically. "I was saying that the bow might be her next door neighbour's dog's. Hell, Kitty. Yes. The bow might be hers. Have you taken a close look on it?"

"Ash hadn't set it down for a second, so I haven't," Katniss admitted. "It looks good though. Not pretty or carved or anything like that. It looks functional. Just like... just like this thing."

She glided her finger on the handle and on the flat sides of the blade, feeling the thing's conflicting roughness and elegance. Johanna had always been the one with the ax, Katniss simply didn't have the chance to try - until her Career training started, and she found herself trying hard just to throw some small knives.

"Kitty," Johanna called her somewhat quietly, turning to her. "There's some kind of engraving on the handle. It's minuscule, but it's there."

Katniss ran her hand on the handle, again. And again. Until she could feel the little creases of the engraving, which she immediately bowed above.

"It says 'John' or something like that," Johanna said, without being asked. "I'm pretty sure that's why I'm called 'Johanna'. Great-grandma must have been inspired by it or something."

"Hmm," Katniss responded, as she examined each letter in the engraving. They weren't an artist's work; crude, scratchy, simple. But it did say "John".

"I'd really ask Ash about this," Johanna continued, crouching back next to Katniss. "But even though I'm a meanie, I know better than to harry a half-mad man. Let's go ask him when he's his prick of a self again."

* * *

They spent another day in the bunker. And another one, and so on until there were five of them - if Katniss counted correctly, for it became even harder to tell time now that they were down there. The wait was somewhat idle, though not entirely boring. Johanna dragged her - and Prim, whenever the younger girl wasn't busy helping their Ma in the hospital - around to visit other Victors and Delly and Madge, insisting that they shouldn't spend their time going crazy in their heads.

They ended up spending so much time with Haymitch, for he was the only one who wasn't busy getting depressed or tending to other people, but Finnick came a close runner up. Katniss swore she'd never made so much knots in a day before, and it scared her a bit how mindless it became after a while, but sitting there knotting ropes with Johanna and Finnick was somehow fun.

The other fun thing was visiting Madge and Ash, who had taken to hanging around together. Ash turned out to be somewhat a guitar player, and his current favourite human interaction seemed to be tutoring Madge in guitar. With each day, Ash seemed to come back a little bit more, though he still hadn't gotten his obnoxious self back. On their last day down there, Katniss and Johanna visited, only to find Madge asleep with her head on Ash's shoulder. The look the man gave them was kind of priceless, and it was clear that they were pretty much unwanted, so the sisters just scooted out and visited that girl from Eight who'd lost her little sisters. She was coping with every single day, though still was as quiet and scared like a mouse, unlike when they first met her.

Looked like everyone was healing, even just a little bit.

The sixth day marked the exodus back up to the compounds, which, apart from some damages on the upper level, was pretty much untouched. Straight away, they were back into strict scheduling - with a stern warning for missing an entire day six days prior, when the boys departed to free the prisoners. By the time dinner came, Katniss had missed her freedom like nothing else. Being on tight schedule really wound her up tight, and from the look on both her sisters' faces, she could see that they hated it too.

"I had to report to the Womanhood Doctor today," Johanna complained loudly, as soon as they sat together for dinner. "He was probably the clumsiest person around. It wasn't fun."

"So," Katniss cut in, clearing her throat for she didn't want to hear more of Johanna's examination stories. "Are you alright now?"

"Yep," her sister answer triumphantly. "I can be in action again. And I can give you nieces and nephews when the urge rises. Commander Hawthorne's going to be the luckiest man in the world when he gets back."

"Yeah," Katniss agreed half-arsedly, giving her sister a quick congratulatory hug before turning back to her green-and-yellow-goop. Hearing your sister talking about her private life was uncomfortable, and it was even more uncomfortable when her man was your best friend.

They were done with dinner, and were making their way back to the Everdeens' living quarters, when a familiar person blocked their way. Haymitch, looking downright worse than they'd ever seen him looking.

"Girls," he said, looking at each of them. "Snow's gonna execute the prisoners tonight. They'll air it live on the television."

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for making it to here! I'll see you on weekend with the next chapter. Don't worry, Peeta's not gonna die! I won't allow it to happen.


	24. Chapter 25: Coming Back to Life, Pt II

**AN: **Hello. Thanks for reading. Welcoming new story followers De-BardatBoston and finnick forever. Thanks to De-BardatBoston, finnick forever, and xizzy92x for favouriting this story, and special thanks to my reviewers jc52185 and Norbert's Mom. Each of you keeps me going.

This chapter is pretty intense, with revelations and interactions and story plot. Hope you enjoy it, though. After this, we'll have five more long-ish chapters left (which I might have to break down into smaller ones to make them less overwhelming), then a pre-epilogue and a short epilogue. I'm both sad and happy that we're nearing the end of this, but each story has an end, and this one will end sufficiently happily for the girls and their boys (and the other Victors).

**Disclaimer: **THG, the characters, and the settings belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing. Minor characters Ash and Caroline Mason, and Sven Lee belong to me. They're here for plot purposes.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty Five: Coming Back to Life, Pt II**

**Johanna**

The room was thick with unspoken grief and tension.

She sat there towards the back, her middle sister's head on her lap. Katniss had checked out again - or half checked out, for Johanna was sure the girl still heard things people said. The small viewing room was jam-packed with the propos team and the Victors. Cecelia, Volts, Haymitch, Mags, Blight, and... Finnick. Finnick, who sat on her other side, as she circled an arm around him. They didn't have the heart to bring Ash in. Madge Undersee had been instructed to keep a strict eye on him in the hospital, and not to let anyone in except it was Haymitch or Blight.

Alma Coin was nowhere to be seen. Johanna had a strong feeling that the woman was watching this thing too, in the privacy of her office, with some drink in hand - she wasn't that stupid to realize some higher up people here clearly didn't observe the alcohol ban. Dear Alma had never been happy with their intention to rescue the three Victors. Johanna bet the woman was laughing now.

They hadn't heard from the rescue team since they left. The execution plan had been made known to some internal spies a few days prior, and the team had been working on a rescue plan in total secret since. It was going to be one of those near-impossible missions, with a small window for errors. And judging the amount of Peacekeepers surrounding the city circle, as seen on screen, there was no way of getting way without shooting some or getting shot by some.

The circle was crowded, almost as crowded as it was on the last few Tributes Parades. It wasn't the same, though, with the foolish, ridiculous giddiness absent and this fearful, dark curiosity present. Annie was pretty much forgettable for the Capitolites, but Caroline had made herself likeable, and Peeta, well, Peeta wasn't only likeable. The Capitol loved him. If Johanna didn't know how hopeless most Capitolites were in defending themselves and gathering courage to go to war, she could guarantee that a big riot was sure to happen.

In the middle of the circle was a tall stage, and on it, three tall structures which were all different, but all similar. All looked like death. On the right was a gigantic glass tank perhaps thirty feet in height, an inbuilt spray around its top filling it with dirty water. In the middle, a pile of what looked like firewood and coal, heaping high into the sky - a stake. On the left was a tall pedestal wrapped entirely with a golden wire, with a tree on the top where the end of the wire was currently looped to.

With just a glance, Johanna knew who was going to die what way.

"I... I can't watch this, Jo-Jo," Finnick said - whimpered - next to her. "I don't know what to do."

"Go," she told him, pulling him closer to her for a second before releasing him. "I'll watch it for you."

"I can't," Finnick disagreed, slumping and burying his hand on his face. "I... I have to see her. I..."

He broke down in tears, and soon, Johanna found him burying his face on her shoulder blade instead.

"Ssh, okay, okay, you two," Johanna said tiredly, looking between the empty-eyed sister on her lap and the crumbling best friend behind her back. "We're all in this together, alright? We can all go loony together if it really happens. And I'll fucking behead Hawthorne if he fails. Really. Lover or not. That way, we can all be loveless. Sounds good?"

"Doll," Haymitch warned from his seat next to Katniss, "you're terrible at thinking before talking. Just shut up, for God's sake."

Johanna threw her mentor a dirty glare, but shut her mouth up nevertheless.

On the screen, some commotion was happening. Three black cars rolled in, stopping just under the stage. Peacekeepers opened the back door, forcefully. And, lo and behold, there came the prisoners. Dressed in their last tribute parade outfits - or non-outfit, in Caroline's case, hands cuffed behind their backs. The Peacekeepers dragged them up the stage, though the only person needed dragging was the hysterical Annie. The other two were calm. No, not calm. Resigned. And Caroline actually looked glad. As if dying on top of the execution stage was a better alternative than whatever she previously had.

There was a long ladder behind each execution device. Johanna confirmed her previous prediction was right, as she saw two Peacekeepers hauling a crying Annie up the ladder behind the giant tank. The poor woman's cries echoed from the speakers, causing Finnick to crumple to the floor covering his ears with his hands, shaking and sobbing.

"Ssh," Mags, who'd scooted over and sat beside him, whispered, taking him into her arms like a small child. "My boy. Ssh."

Several horrific minutes passed, as Annie screamed and cried and the tank started filling. The cries peaked in a gut-wrenching shriek, as the Peacekeepers threw her into the tank and the glass lid on top of it closed.

The screams dwindled down, as the glass blocked Annie's voice. With a stifling ache for her friend, Johanna realized that the poor girl had not even once called Finnick's name.

Annie was being really brave, as brave an Annie Cresta could be.

Several excruciating minutes passed as the tank filled up. Johanna sat frozen on her seat, trying hard not to scream herself, as Annie floated and floated and screamed and screamed. At one point, Johanna closed her eyes. She couldn't take it anymore. To take someone's life with a quick slash was a thing. To watch someone dying, terrified and helpless, for several long minutes, was another.

The next thing she noticed was a shattering sound, and something which sounded like a wild stampede from the speaker. And a loud mixture of sigh-gasp from all the Victors around her.

"About time," Haymitch grumbled dryly.

Her eyes snapped open, straight to the sight on the screen which both delighted and terrified her.

There was a crazy chaos on the execution stage, with Peacekeepers fighting each other.

The stake was on fire - with no particular person on it.

The wire on the empty pedestal was flashing with electricity; the loop - and the tree - falling onto the audience causing them to part with screams and shrieks.

And the giant tank was leaking water - to all directions, towards the audience.

The city circle was totally destroyed.

A hovercraft appeared. A claw descended from it, fishing Annie out of the tank. The look on her face as she was being lifted upwards was that of simultaneous joy and terror. Behind the destroyed tank, two Peacekeepers dragged Peeta up the stairs, whilst another one carried a struggling, kicking Caroline over his shoulder. Four claws immediately descended, picking up the Victors and the three Peacekeepers - or faux-Peacekeepers, actually. As their claws ascended, they all discarded their helmets.

The District Twelve boys had once again saved the world.

The fighting Peacekeepers on the stage spilled onto the crowd and disappeared among it, each running in different directions no one knew what happened. And then the image on the screen shook. And rotated. Then died.

Looked like that one last broadcast camera had too been destroyed.

"So," Blight asked, a few seconds later, "what next?"

Haymitch got up and smirked at all of them.

"Well, Miners and Sailors and Lumberjacks," he said, happily yet cynically, "let the waiting games... begin!"

Johanna cackled hard, so hard that she toppled to the floor and startled Katniss out of her trance. She could feel everyone's eyes - everyone's judging, scrutinizing eyes - on her, but she just laughed and laughed. And laughed and laughed, until her stomach couldn't take it anymore and her voice faded into this high pitched hisses. Who cared what others thought of her. Snow, fucking bastard son of evil Snow, was surely eating his own shit tonight.

* * *

She wasn't among the people they let into the hovercraft when it landed; Haymitch and the Medical Crew were. It bothered her a bit, but she was too ecstatic that they'd just slapped Snow right on his face to get angry or throw a tantrum. So, she just waited, with this calmness she didn't even expect from herself, on the bay.

Her cheeks hurt a bit; she must have been smiling all along. Perhaps she was going insane, but if she was, to the hell with it. Snow was finally paying for it. She finally wasn't the only one humiliated.

One by one, the rebels started making their way out of the hovercraft. First came a few district Thirteen soldiers with bandages and arm slings, their expressions flat as if nothing had happened. Then out came Annie, wrapped in a blanket and wide-eyed and pale, supported by two Medics on either side. The next person out was Thom, whose shirt was unbuttoned revealing a thick bandage around his middle. He looked downright tired, yet accomplished.

"Good job," Johanna said, as he walked past her. "Your girl's with Katniss. They are waiting in the hospital."

Thom squeezed her shoulder and smiled, before continuing his little journey to the hospital.

A stretcher came out next, pushed by a Medic. Next to it, walked Wheaton, who was only in his combat pants and red-stained undershirt. He was talking frantically, not to the Medic, but to the redhead on the stretcher. Caroline. Wrapped in a clearly oversized combat shirt, make-up crudely rubbed off revealing bruises on her face. She was crying; tears rolled down the sides of her face. The blanket covering her lower half was stained - albeit so slightly - with blood.

She strode towards her friend's stretcher, only to be pushed back by one of the bystanding Medics.

"We're trying to get the patients to the hospital as quickly as possible, Miss Everdeen," the young man rationalized. "You will have a special right to visit them whenever you want, so please don't worry for now."

She shot him a death glare, but backed off nevertheless. He had a point. Getting the three into the hospital was definitely a priority.

The next stretcher came immediately afterwards, pushed by another Medic, with another one standing next to it holding up a drip, flanked by Haymitch and Soldier Boggs - Coin's much more likeable right-hand man. On the thing was Peeta. His face was black and blue, like Caroline's, and he was out of his tribute parade costume and bandaged. His eyes were closed, and his body limp. He was unconscious.

"Soldier," she snapped, turning to the guarding Medic. "What happened to him?"

"Compared to the two other prisoners, he sustained the most damage," the guard explained, adjusting his earset a bit. "We've contacted the hospital to prepare for surgery."

"What happened?" Johanna reiterated, snapping even harder. The answer wasn't at all helpful, to her.

"I don't have the authority to tell you, Soldier Everdeen," the Medic said, looking remorseful.

"But he's my _brother_!" Johanna yelled, her voice catching a bit when she said 'brother'. "He's married to my sister!"

"It's not the matter of confidentiality, Soldier," the Medic responded with a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "We're not yet sure of the kind of injuries he sustained, so we couldn't yet tell you."

"You'd better figure that out," Johanna spat out, feeling a bit bad for the kind Medic but unable to restrain herself. "One mistake handling him, and you'll all be dead."

The Medic didn't talk to her again after that. Perhaps he was tired of her, perhaps he was scared. Anyway, it didn't matter. The last of the rescuers had poured out the hovercraft. And Gale was among them, head bandaged and arm in sling but alive and walking.

"JO!" he yelled for her, striding quickly towards where she stood as he saw her.

"Hey," she greeted him, tiptoeing to press their lips together. "Welcome back."

"Thanks for staying alive," he responded, once their quick, chaste kiss was over. "For a day or two, I really believed that you're... Jo, let's not be apart again."

(Sadly he didn't have total control over whether or not they would be apart again. But they did live through the rebellion, and for so many years afterwards, and throughout the years, he would see that they were _almost_ never apart again.)

"Good focus," she praised him - cynically, but it was still nevertheless a praise. "'My girl'... well, 'my wife died in a bombing and so I poured myself into my mission'. That's some resolve you have."

"Ssh," he chided her. "Don't say such thing. If I hadn't remembered they had Peeta and your friends, I would've come to the bastard's mansion and shot him myself."

"Lucky you didn't," Johanna commented, making yet another dry joke. "Ash would be really upset not to see him dying."

She bit her tongue as soon as the sentence came out, expecting yet another angry, jealous outburst from him. But instead, he smiled at her.

"Tell him he's welcome to come when I kill Snow," he said to her, his eyes burning with his raging, uncontrollable fire. "And he can help if he wants. That bastard Snow should have a taste of his own medicine."

And then, just then, she came to realize that they were more similar than she initially thought.

She planted her feet firmly on the ground, as he bent down and captured her lips in a passionate, spark-igniting kiss.

* * *

**Katniss**

He was there. Peeta was there.

They pushed her back and restrained her as she ran up to his stretcher, and wheeled him straight into an operation theatre. She couldn't help but feeling grateful, though. So grateful that he's not coming back to her in a coffin or without a body to bury.

"Well-acquainted with the waiting room seats yet?" Johanna sneered, standing in front of her with a cup of water.

She just looked up at her sister, for she didn't know how to respond to that.

"Here," Johanna said, pushing the water to her. "Have a drink."

They were the only two people in this waiting room, as of currently. There were, to start, Delly and Thom, but Thom had since been admitted to his own room and Delly had gone with him. Then Madge stopped by, briefly, only to fly back wherever she came from soon afterwards. Most likely back to Ash Mason, whom she'd been with previously. After what felt like forever, Wheaton came and sat with her for an hour or so. He was whisked away - forcefully - by some burly male nurses, though, for he had apparently disappeared from his own hospital room when he was supposed to rest. Next came Gale and Johanna, but Gale, too, was whisked straight away to his hospital room. Now, it was only her - and Johanna, who shuttled around between the waiting room and the boys' hospital rooms. Oh, and Annie's room, though it wasn't apparently necessary for Finnick hadn't left his girlfriend's side for even a second since Annie was brought in. Caroline was in strict psychological observation, and wasn't allowed any guests. Apparently the tortures had messed up her head, totally.

Katniss took the cup of water and drank it, surprised of how grateful she was to have the water down her throat. It must have been ages since she'd last drunk anything.

"How are you feeling?" her sister asked, dropping with a soft thud next to her.

"I... I don't know," she admitted honestly. "It's like... like I want to be happy, but somehow still can't."

Johanna rubbed her back affectionately.

"You'll be fine, Kitty," the older girl said, looking at her. "You'll be happy again, soon. I'm willing to guarantee that."

"Don't," Katniss responded, looking back at her sister. "You've spent so much time guaranteeing my happiness. I can't take more from you."

"Noble much, eh?" Johanna asked, chuckling. "I must admit I hate inconveniencing you, Brainless, but you're stuck on me like a tattoo, and forever I'll be babysitting you. Even when you're old, senile, and spending your time running after your great-grandbabies."

"'Sif," Katniss responded. "You don't know what's gonna happen, Jo. We might not even live long enough to have kids."

"Since when I can't dream?" Johanna snapped lightly, snorting. "And you're usually the optimist in this messed up sisterhood, Brainless. Don't take my role."

Katniss snorted back.

"I guess life just caught up with me," she said, stretching her legs. "Or, more likely, this whole rebellion thing has caught up with me."

Johanna looked straight up at the ceiling and sighed.

"If you're to summarize how on earth we got here," she then said, turning to Katniss, "what would you say?"

Katniss lifted her head and looked at the wall in front of them.

"Pa died," she then began, turning to her sister. "Ma checked out. We got hungry. You took tesserae. You got reaped. You won your game. Snow... Snow sold you. You stood up, then he reaped Prim and Peeta. I volunteered. I pulled lots of stunts and won with Peeta. Snow got angry, I got reaped again. Then I blew up the Quarter Quell arena under the rebels' plan."

"Good summary," Johanna responded, looking back up at the ceiling again. "Judging how you told it, you must have realized that our lives were just a string of crazy coincidences and other people's evil plans which brought us here."

Katniss sat quietly, as the truth sank in. Johanna was right. Whatever happened to them, they hardly have any control upon. They're just little dandelion seeds, blown around by the wind and planted in the most difficult place possible.

"If none... none of those had happened," she eventually said, swallowing the thick realization in her throat, "what do you think our story would sound like?"

"Well," Johanna answered, frowning. "Let me think. Okay, so there will be these two Seam girls called Johanna and Katniss. They grew up poor, but they are happy with their loving Pa and their gentle Ma and their baby sister Prim. Johanna survived all her reapings, and is, like other Seam girls of her age, married. To a coal miner, _surprise surprise. _He was mean to her when they were little, but turned out that it's because he liked her. She's now pushing out her first baby, screaming obscenities at poor Katniss who's freaking out over her upcoming last reaping and her forbidden relationship with the Baker's son."

Katniss laughed, not because of the story, but because Johanna sounded so funny narrating it. And because it actually sounded... boring. Apart from the part where Peeta and hers relationship was forbidden, it was plain as.

She couldn't imagine herself - let alone Johanna - satisfied with such a flat, normal life.

"Geez," Johanna said then, as if echoing her thoughts, "that sounded boring, didn't it?"

"Yeah," Katniss agreed. "I... I don't like that life too."

They laughed together, as they realized they didn't know what they actually wanted.

"You realize what's the only thing constant between those two stories?" Johanna asked.

"Us," Katniss listed. "Our men. Prim."

"Exactly," Johanna exclaimed, lifting her arms above her head to stretch them. "We can actually make a hundred different scenarios, if those are the only things constant."

"We can still do, you know," Katniss responded, looking at her sister. "When the war's over. Go somewhere. Start afresh. Leave these all behind."

"And that's my optimistic Kitty coming back," Johanna said, sounding delighted. She stood up and ruffled the top of Katniss's hair - to Katniss's dismay - and walked off, muttering something about tending to Finnick.

Half an hour passed, as Katniss sat by herself dissecting what Johanna had just made her see. She didn't want a rebellion, and so didn't Johanna. They were here just due to circumstances. And due to their rebel boys. And the boys rebelled, partially, because of them. Well, Peeta, peaceful, kind Peeta, rebelled because he wanted to keep her safe and alive. Gale was always the rebel, but had Johanna not been reaped and treated so cruelly, Katniss doubted his fire would burn this bright. Perhaps Gale would end up being one of those guys who'd secretly berate the Capitol behind their backs, and nothing more.

In some ways, their suffering paved a way for the new Panem.

She went for a walk, just to shake away the overwhelming thoughts.

* * *

When she got back from her walk, Peeta was out of the surgery and was in recovery.

From the limited sight Katniss could see of him from behind the glass window, he was soaking in some kind of solution. His doctor explained that it was burn medication. Her boy had been tortured with fire.

They did it gradually, starting from one leg, then another, then up his body. His left leg, which they had targeted first, was almost dead by the time they rescued him. They saved it, but he would most likely walk with a limp for the rest of his life.

She just nodded, and once more, walked away, for she needed her time to deal with everything.

On her way out, she passed a closed room guarded by two district Thirteen soldiers. Some kind of interview was happening inside; judging the voice, it was Soldier Boggs interviewing Annie in Finnick's presence. Her stomach lurched, as she realized what the bits of the conversation she heard was all about. Annie hadn't been tortured much, but she had been the one lucid enough to hear all the screams and sounds of the torturing devices.

She halted on her spot, as Annie started telling what Caroline faced every day, but had to continue walking as the two door guards were looking at her.

She didn't quite know where she walked, but she found herself inside this cupboard at the end, curling onto herself. Hours passed as she sat there; she didn't know how many, but it seemed like quite a few.

"Soldier Katniss Everdeen?"

The sound startled her. Opening her eyes, she realized she must have fallen asleep.

"Thank heavens you're alive. Your sisters are going insane looking for you."

A light flickered above her, revealing the person who'd discovered her. Dark eyes, dark straight hair, medium-fair skin. At first, she didn't remember where she first saw him. And then, the memory of the dark bunker, frayed ropes, a bow, and a guitar slowly came back to her.

"Sven Lee," the boy said, seemingly noticing the frown on her face. "Actually, it's Soldier Sven Lee now. District Seven. We sort of met in the bunker a couple of days ago. You tied good knots."

"Thanks for finding me," she snapped at him. She knew she shouldn't, for the search was Prim and Johanna's idea, but she couldn't help but feeling annoyed that she could no longer just sit and think.

"You should get out and see them," the boy told her, sounding light and easy going but unwavering. "Prim is close to tears."

"Prim?" she asked him, scowling. "You know my little sister?"

"From the hospital," the boy answered, sounding casual about it. "My father got injured escaping Seven, so I spent a fair bit of time waiting around there."

"Oh."

The thought of Prim crying for her injected a bit of will in her dampened spirit. Slowly, she got up from the floor and followed the boy back towards where her family was.

"Your father," she said, after a few minutes of silence, "is he OK now?"

"Pretty alright," he answered. "Still as bitter as he'd been since my sister died, but his arm is now usable."

"Sorry to hear about your sister," Katniss said, somewhat automatically. She'd heard too many stories of losses and missing siblings since she arrived here, so much that it numbed her down a bit.

"No need to," the boy responded, looking straight forward. "She's been dead for six years now."

Silence once again took precedence, as they entered the elevator. As she took a closer look at the boy, the curiosity Katniss had felt days earlier regarding Ash Mason's bow flared again. This Sven Lee boy wasn't as old as she'd predicted him to be. In good light like this, it was apparent that he was only fourteen or fifteen. He couldn't have been a friend of Caroline's, let alone Ash's.

"So," she started, unable to contain her curiosity longer, "how are you related to the Masons?"

"It's a bit complicated," Sven answered, turning to look at her. "You know that they had two brothers, right?"

"Kind of," Katniss answered. "My older sister mentioned that in passing."

"I was best friends with the youngest," Sven responded, a slight look of pain crossing his eyes as he spoke. "It turned a bit weird when Ash started dating my sister, but we were best friends until his death."

And suddenly, it dawned to Katniss that she was facing yet another victim of Snow's. This boy had lost both his sister and his best friend to Snow's cruelty. At a rather young age, judging how old he looked now.

"That's why I had the bow and the guitar," Sven explained, as if he knew Katniss was curious. "The guitar was Ash's proposal gift to my sister. The bow... the bow was my best friend's favourite thing. Caroline gave it to me after he died."

The boy stopped a bit to rub his eyes. It amazed and terrified Katniss how the deaths still hurt him, until she suddenly started thinking about her Pa and felt this emptiness in her chest. You would just never forget your loved ones.

The elevator came to a halt. They were back in the Everdeens' floor now.

"I'll walk you back to the room, if you don't mind," the boy offered, holding the door open for her to pass through. "Sorry about what happened to your husband."

"He'll get better," Katniss responded, for she didn't know what else to say. She let the boy walk her to her room, though, for she'd started enjoying his company. Somehow she felt protective towards him, the kind of protective she felt towards Prim.

A blur of blonde braids crashed to her as soon as she reached the end of their corridor. Prim had practically jumped her, laughing and crying at the same time.

"Katniss! Thank God you're alright! We've been so worried about you!"

"Sorry," that was all she could mutter. "I'm sorry."

She didn't know how long they stayed in the embrace. They only pulled apart when a pair of forceful, angry claws tore Katniss away from the hug.

"Don't just disappear like that, Brainless!" Johanna scolded her, brown eyes angry and hands on hips. "We've got enough troubles in hand without you disappearing!"

"I know," she said, averting her sister's gaze. "I'm sorry."

She was expecting some kind of further outburst, but instead, she was pulled into a hug.

"You'll be fine, Kitty," Johanna whispered in her ears, "You'll be fine."

In the background, she could hear Prim muttering a quiet, uncharacteristically shy 'thanks' to the Sven boy, and the boy's easygoing reply. Footsteps echoed, and then he was gone. Now, it was just them three sisters in the dark corridor, a myriad of confusing emotions around them.

"There's something I need to tell you two," Johanna said, after a few moments of silence.

"What's that?" Prim asked, sounding scared but excited.

"Nothing too dangerous, really," the oldest girl answered, nevertheless scanning the corridor for any eavesdroppers. "And nothing unheard of before. At least to me and Brainless, for I wasn't sure whether you were awake, Lovely Brat."

Prim frowned, at first. Then, the frown slowly melted, and her jaw turned slack.

"Johanna," she whispered, looking at their older sister, "don't tell me we're actually related to the Masons."

"Bad luck, Primrose," Johanna responded, looking a bit distracted yet amused as she said this. "The bow, the ax, and an old man from Seven say we are."

**to be continued..**

* * *

Thanks for making it here everyone! I'll see you later next week with the next chapter, in which the family connection will be revealed.

Oh, and just in case it disturbs you: there's no incest in this story. Johanna had never been made to do anything with Ash or Caroline, even when they were hired together.


	25. Chapter 26: Revealing the Truths

**AN: **Hello! Thanks for reading. Special thanks to ellie82, jc52185, De-BardatBoston, Norbert's Mom, and nothing2000 for their reviews. Each and every of you my readers, followers, favouriters (not a word, blah, but you know what I mean right? ;)), and reviewers keep me going and writing.

Here's the next chapter, less than 24 hours after the previous one. Don't know what got into me, just felt the urge to update. Here we'll reveal the family connections between the Everdeens and the Masons, and spend a bit of time getting to know what the three recently-rescued Victors faced in Capitol. There will be some moments of romance (though sadly not many - I'm planning to write outtakes on this story so that I can explore on the romances and the other characters, though), brother-sister moments, and... Finnick and Annie's wedding. Plenty of things going on, I must say! Hope you enjoy it :)

**Disclaimer: **As usual. All are Suzanne Collins', except my minor (Ash Mason, Caroline Mason, Penelope Spinner, Sven Lee).

* * *

**Chapter Twenty Six: Revealing Truths**

**Katniss**

Once, before the first rebellion, there was a brave, orphaned young girl from District Twelve, who'd put her faith in her older brother and let him took them, illegally, through the woods to District Seven, with nothing but the clothes on her back and a bow in possession.

Once upon a time, the girl grew into a grey-eyed young woman, who'd kept a little cottage outside Seven's district fencing.

Once upon a time, the girl's brother became a rebel. And a few months later, he brought home a young, brown-eyed rebel, native of District Seven.

Once upon a time, the grey-eyed young woman and the brown-eyed young man fell in love, and were married in their own toasting ceremony, with her brother as a witness.

Once upon a time, the couple were blessed with twin girls, one brown-eyed and one blue-eyed.

Once upon a time, the first rebellion broke, killing the grey-eyed woman's brother and many others.

Once upon a time, the brown-eyed young rebel sneaked his wife and their brown-eyed infant into a train back to District Twelve before the post-rebellion census occurred, giving them his childhood first ax, as he clutched their blue-eyed infant and his wife's beloved childhood bow to his chest.

Once upon a time in District Twelve, the brown-eyed baby girl grew up into a resilient woman who mined coal. And once upon a time, she went down the mines and never came back, leaving her grey-eyed little son who loved to sing with her mother.

Once upon a time in District Seven, the grey-eyed climber who was once the blue-eyed baby girl gave birth to her own daughter, who'd inherited her grey eyes.

Once upon a time in District Twelve, the grey-eyed grandson of the star-crossed couple married his Merchant love, and had three daughters named Johanna, Katniss, and Prim Everdeen.

And once upon a time in District Seven, the grey-eyed granddaughter of the star-crossed couple had her four children, two of whom were Ash and Caroline Mason.

And at the end, the star-crossed couple, John and Olive, were great-grandparents to four Hunger Games Victors.

* * *

The bow felt small and fragile, yet strong, in Katniss's hands.

She traced it, carefully, with her fingers. Upon close inspection, she could see it was built for a child - or a small woman. She thought she could imagine her great-grandmother when she closed her eyes. Small, olive-skinned, and grey-eyed, aiming at a tree in the woods. The woods outside Twelve. The woods outside Seven, which Katniss passed in her way to the district during her Victory Tour.

"It's marked," Ash, who sat across her, said. "Right where your hand's to rest. It says 'Olive'. I've always thought that's why my baby brother was called Oliver."

She moved her hand there, and sure, there it was. Scratchy and rough, like the marking on Johanna's ax. The way the 'o' was carved told her that the bow and the ax were marked by the same person. Whether it was her great-grandfather, whether it was her great-grandmother, she didn't know. All she knew was that they had both died worlds away from each other, and that the only way for them to see each other after the failed rebellion was to pay close attention to the reaping broadcasts.

Her eyes watered at the thought. Both her great-grandfather and her great-grandmother, they had been really strong and brave.

"Geez, Ash," she heard Johanna commenting beside her. "Lucky they've never made us do anything to each other."

Now, that was new. Katniss always had this impression that Johanna had had to do things with both her best male friends. She knew her sister well enough to be able to tell that Johanna was being honest, though. Her sister just had never delved into the minute details of the ordeals.

"Luck's mine," Ash said, a hint of his usual snarkiness back in his voice. "I've never thought you're hot, just so you know. Now I know why. Second cousin of the Mockingjay. Consider me lucky."

Next to their newfound second cousin, Prim sat in total silence. She wasn't zoning out, though. The look on concentration on her face told Katniss that her little sister was absorbing all the information they'd just shared, and analyzed it in a way no one else could. All in her head.

"Does it make us partially Seven, and you guys partially Twelve?" she then asked, turning to Ash.

"Guess so," Ash answered. "Though I can't see why it's that important, now that both Seven and Twelve are bombed out as and we're in Thirteen. Whether we win or lose, Seven and Twelve are no more. What remain are just a bunch of displaced people."

"Fuck, cousin," Johanna said in awe, staring at Ash. "For someone who's been giving everyone silent treatment for the past two months or so, you surely talk a lot."

Ash just shrugged and turned away, though Katniss could see a slight hint of sheepish smile on his face.

"Well," he said, somewhat tentatively. "I got my sister - or whatever person is there now - back. I have no other reason to be silent."

Prim giggled. Ash shot her a look, and she quieted down, but still, her eyes were giggling.

"Ooo," Johanna teased. "You know what's been getting him giddy, Primmy?"

"Uhm...," Prim hesitated, looking between Ash and Johanna. "Nothing. Nothing much, really."

Well, obviously there was something going on.

It was perhaps seven in the morning though, and none of them had slept the whole night, so they just decided to call the family meeting quits. They did decide, though, before going out, that this wasn't something they were to share with anyone outside the Victors and Victor Guards. None of them felt particularly excited about doing a propo about their great-grandparents.

The corridor outside Ash's hospital room was pretty much empty, except for the odd nurses and doctors. Katniss traversed it quietly, back to the room she'd been trying to avoid. Peeta's recovery room, which she couldn't get into.

There was quite a surprise, though, when she got there, in the form of Haymitch. He looked tired and a bit thin, and with an immense guilt, Katniss realized she'd never really checked on her mentor since they first arrived.

"Where have you been?" the older man asked, straightforward and rather quiet.

She looked away, refusing to answer him. She didn't have any acceptable answer, any acceptable reason for leaving Peeta here alone.

Haymitch muttered something about 'infuriating little girls' and shoved her towards the observation room door.

"I've asked them to let you in," he told her, with an unusual vulnerability in his face. "Nurse inside will help you putting on the scrub."

"Haymitch," she called him softly, turning around to face him, "thanks."

A ghost of a smile crossed Haymitch's face, though it was still really invisible underneath his scowl.

"Go to your man, Sweetheart," he chided her, turning away. "Apparently he's been asking for you."

And so she went in. The nurse inside outfitted her and instructed her to scrub immediately; apparently she would kill Peeta with all the germs she'd brought otherwise. They even made her put a facemask which went over her nose and mouth. It was stifling, and she didn't like it, but she was too afraid to actually kill him to take it off.

The room smelt like medicines and disinfectant - still strong, through the facemask. The solution Peeta was soaking in smelt a little funny too, and Katniss found her stomach lurching a bit. The sight of him soon distracted her from her nausea, though. She clenched her fists and strode over, standing beside his bed when she eventually got there.

She'd lasted enough to take a careful look at his face when they rushed him in the previous night. Right now, he was still battered as, though that scrunch of pain was gone. She knew they'd been giving him Morphling to help with the pain. With the pain gone, he was back to her peaceful Peeta, with that soothing look on his face which instantly brought peace to Katniss.

"'Niss..."

His eyes were still shut, but his arm - the one closer to her - extended out a bit, as if begging for her touch. She extended her own arm to clasp his unbandaged hand, squeezing it with her gloved one. His grasp was weak, much weaker than it usually was. She fought back her tears, as she took in the full sight of him. Thin and, for once in his life, fragile. And his leg... the leg they'd hit the hardest with the torture...

She turned away before she broke down.

"...safe...?"

The soft mumble turned her head back to him.

"Yes, Peeta," she answered. "I'm here. We're safe. All of us."

"...Nie?...Line?"

And that's her Peeta. Always thinking about others.

"Yes," she assured him again. "Both of them are here. Gale, Wheaton, Thom, and the others got you all out of there. They're all here too. Snow's got no one."

The answer seemed enough, for his grip loosened and he fell back into his morphling-induced comma. Eventually, his hand fell, and hers was free.

She turned around and strode away from the bed and towards the door. The sight she caught through the corner of her eyes, though, stopped her.

Outside the room, close to the glass window, stood Finnick Odair. On his back, propped up high she could see in, was Annie Cresta, pale but somewhat calm. They were looking in, watching Peeta.

She turned her head and watched, as Annie lifted a hand to touch the glass, her lips moving slowly as if singing a lullaby. And she still watched on, as Finnick's lips started moving too, singing along.

It was then she decided that she was done running away, that it was time for her to be, to Peeta, what Finnick was to Annie.

She turned on her heels and strode back to his bed.

* * *

**Johanna**

Never still as he was, Gale was wide awake and was jotting some plan - with his non-dominant hand, which was the only one he could use at the moment.

"Stop working, Hawthorne," she scolded him lightly. "You can't even write in straight line now."

"What else should I do?" he asked her, without lifting his head from the plan. "I'm done sleeping, and no one was here when I woke up."

Now, that was definitely pouting. She made a mental eyeroll and decided to ignore it. Gale might act all big and strong, but there was this Johanna-addicted little boy inside him which made appearance at times.

Peering at the draft, she could see some kind of crude drawing there. It was so crude people would believe if she told them it was a four-year-old's drawing, and she found herself snorting at the thought. That seemed to work on getting his attention back, for he lifted his head and glared at her, looking somewhat like a wounded animal.

"Okay, okay," she said, lifting her arms in a surrendering gesture. "I'll stop making fun of your drawing. Or plan. Or whatever it is."

He threw the sketch pad and pen aside, looking dead pissed.

"Stop all of these, Johanna," he snapped, turning away from her. "I'm trying to get him killed fast for you. Is this what I'm getting for that?"

"Fuck, Gale," she snapped back, throwing herself onto the bed next to him. "Relax! Do you even have any idea what we're getting into?"

This seemed to snap something in him, for he turned back to her. She guessed he was somewhat shocked, for among the two of them, she was usually the impulsive one. Or could be that he's realizing that things are going crazy, and he needed to slow down with the revenge.

"What do you think we should do, then?" he asked her, somewhat expectantly and somewhat reluctantly.

"Nothing," she answered, sure as fire. "Nothing for the time being."

He opened his mouth, clearly ready for another retort. But it never came out, for she'd climbed on his lap and pressed her lips on his.

Of all things in the world, only one thing never failed to calm him down.

* * *

Even with the arm sling and bandaged head, Gale Hawthorne proven himself to be unstoppable. Especially when he's stressed out like this, when he needed to take his fire out on something before it burned him.

He led - dragged - her out of the room and out of the hospital, after their first take in the room. Through the corridors and up the elevator, to the forbidden woods around the compound. He pinned her against a tree - with one arm - and had her again, fast and eager. And she took it all, for, strangely, she found it empowering. Her time in the Capitol as a Loan Item seemed so far away.

As they made their way back to the compound afterwards, flushed and exhausted and satisfied, it slowly dawned to Johanna that it was, in all sense, pretty fucked. Here they were, in the middle of a war with Capitol, with their friends physically, mentally, and emotionally injured, and all they could actually do was having it in the woods in broad morning light. It was so cynically funny she started chuckling, loudly until a hand flew to her mouth and gagged her.

"Quiet, Jo!" he hissed at her. "There's something - someone - else here."

Now, that was enough to quiet her down. She let him lead her again - this time, swiftly and quietly - behind a tree, relenting as he pressed both of them to the bark in a bid to be invisible.

Someone else turned out to be two figures in grey uniform, lost in their own embrace. Looked like they weren't alone in their needs to get away from the war.

"Fuck my life."

She turned to Gale, and found him gaping slightly, with a great amount of blood drained from his face.

"What?" she asked him again, quietly.

He turned away and grimaced, before looking down at her.

"See it for yourself."

He was quiet, eerily quiet afterwards, as she craned her neck in a bid to get a full view of the couple. At first, they were nothing but a tangle of bodies in an upright embrace, lips meeting with vigour and hands roaming. But then, slowly, their features registered in her brain.

Reddish brown, short-cut hair. What had been an athletic figure, shrunken down by what looked like lack of movement. Quick, sure-fire movements.

A long, blonde ponytail. Porcelain skin, delicate figure. Long fingers which curved around like she was playing a piano.

And then, just then, she finally knew who had brought her friend and long-lost cousin Ash Mason his vigour back.

She looked away, for there was no way she didn't feel awkward watching that kiss, but smirked nevertheless. Cousin Johanna certainly would have a nice story to tell the Undersee-Mason children of how their parents had met, should there be such children in the future.

It was then she realized she hadn't told Gale her news yet.

"Oh, by the way," she whispered to him, twisting a bit so she could look him in the eye. "I've just found out that it's my second cousin your ex-almost-girlfriend or whatever is kissing."

The way Gale's jaw dropped nearly sent her into a laughing spell and gave them away.

* * *

Haymitch and Blight had the same jaw-dropping reaction when she broke the news - or the fact - about the Everdeen-Mason cousinship to them, but Mags on the other hand looked triumphant, as if she'd just won something.

"See, boys?" she said, glancing at Haymitch and Blight. "I've always been right all along."

Finnick, who sat next to Mags, buried his face in his hands.

"So this is why you look somewhat similar," he said, shaking his head. "I've always wondered how on earth I've never seen another brown-eyed kid from Twelve."

"Neither have I, now that I've thought about it," Johanna responded, as the realization dawned on her. "My brown-eyed grandma died before I was born. Was too busy surviving to try looking at her picture, so I've never known. I've always assumed it's my parents' mixed genetics."

"If I'm not mistaken, your Great-grandma's story was that a Peacekeeper forced her to it," Haymitch chimed in, frowning in thought. "People always thought she was a saint for loving her bastard instead of killing the proof of humiliation. Who knew there's actually this Star-Crossed lovers' story behind it."

"Poor girl must've had a hard life," Mags commented sympathetically.

"Oh, don't you worry, Mags," Haymitch responded. "Life's always hard at the Seam. No one really bothered keeping endless discussion about her parentage. They just took it as it is. What's the story at Seven, Blight?"

"District's too big," Blight explained. "Didn't live in the same town with the Masons, so didn't know the whole story. I did get suspicious about Caroline's grey eyes when they moved in to Victors' Village, though, so I asked her big brother if they'd found her in the woods or something."

"For God's sake, Blight," Mags scolded him. "Sometimes you are actually an idiot."

"I wish you'd said that before I asked, Mags," Blight responded, waving Mags off. "The kid punched me in the gut, then spat out in my face that it was his grandmother they found in the woods."

"Serves you right," Mags commented, looking somewhat satisfied.

There was a pregnant pause in the room. Looked like no one had further thing to say.

"Alright," Johanna stood up, stretching her legs. "Gotta go now. I trust that you'll all keep the story secret, but just in case, I'll remind you again."

She made her way out of the room, and was about to turn in the corridor, when someone familiar caught up with her.

"Doll."

She turned around, and looked at the mentor she'd just left not even a minute ago.

"Yes?"

Haymitch bend down to her ear level, and whispered, "watch your back from now on. I've told Hawthorne, but I'll just tell you too in case."

"Huh?" Johanna asked, confused.

Haymitch looked at her.

"That Old Kid did the right thing and defied Coin during the rescue," he continued, proud and at the same time worried. "If I'm correct about the woman, she'll want both you and him gone. Try not to die before we tell the world who she is."

* * *

**Katniss**

Peeta's recovery was painful, but it was definitely going.

Everything healed in a week or two, apart from the leg. When they released him, finally, at his own insistence, he was depending on a cane and barely walking. It took them three times the usual to get to their new couple's room, down the hall from Johanna and Gale's. And by the end of it, Peeta was drenched in sweat and exhausted and frustrated, so much he ended up crying.

"Sorry I'm so useless," he sobbed out, as Katniss took him gently in her arms and rubbed his back. "Please don't leave."

That's a hundred more points against Snow, in her little book of revenge.

"What do you mean?" she asked him, feeling her eyes welling up too. "You're my world. I'm not gonna leave. I'm not gonna let you go."

She ended up watching him through silent tears, as he drifted to sleep, fragile and vulnerable like a small child. At one point, she fell asleep too, only waking up when her big sister knocked on her door loudly, early the next morning.

"My schedule will most probably be full, and your brother-in-law screwed up so I have to tiptoe around the line," Johanna said, without any greetings or hug, as she barged in. "My brother-in-law needs to walk again, though, so I figured out I'll take a bit of my sleeping time and help him."

"He has therapies scheduled for later today," Katniss explained, slipping between her sister and the bed protectively. "We've had a rough evening, please just let him sleep."

"Not your business, Brainless," Johanna casually commented, shoving her aside. "It's between me and your boy. Oh, and I can guarantee whatever they'll make him do today would be dud. They don't want him alive in the first place."

"Jo!" Katniss hissed, grabbing her sister's shoulders. "Could you just explain to me what's happening? I've just woken up, and you kept bombarding me with these confusing clues!"

"It's nothing new, really," Johanna hissed back, throwing her hands off forcefully. "Coin wants us dead. Peeta, Annie, Caroline, Ash, and now me and Gale. Don't be surprised if she's going for you and Finnick too, once all propos are done."

"Jo," Katniss said, grabbing her sister again. "You're sleepwalking! Wake up!"

"I am awake, Brainless!" Johanna snapped back. "And, just this once, listen to what I say! Watch your back!"

"I know," Katniss responded. "I know Coin's the enemy. I'll watch out, Joey. Now, please, let him be. Just for this once. Please."

Johanna ignored her.

"There's no time to waste, Brainless," she said, curt and business-like. "We'll need to make him walk again. Hell, we'll need to make him run again. Whatever it takes. Crippled or not, he'll be in the battlefield. Take my word as it is."

With that, her older sister thrown her out of her own room, and locked the door from the inside.

* * *

She ended up knocking on Gale and Johanna's door fifteen minutes later, for she couldn't stand hearing both her sister and her boy's screams.

Gale was awake, and from the indifference he showed towards the screaming echoing throughout the corridor, she knew he was aware of what was going on.

"Hope they're not giving everyone else the wrong idea," her best-friend-turned-brother-in-law commented, looking amused if not slightly embarrassed.

"Shut up, Gale," Katniss responded, almost in tears. "That's my boyfriend your supposed-wife's torturing there."

"Boyfriend?"

Well, there went their little secret.

Ensuring the door was closed, and that the screaming drowned their conversation, Katniss looked up at Gale.

"I'm not really married," she revealed, sighing and wiping her eyes. "It's all a lie."

Gale sighed and shook his head.

"At least I'm not the only one faking it here," he said, chuckling.

For a while, they just looked at each other. Then, without prompts, they started laughing, over their partners' screams.

"To fake marriages," he said somewhat sarcastically, pretending to lift a glass in the air.

"To two fake marriages in a family," Katniss responded, lifting her own fake glass.

"What are you going to do after the war, then?" Gale asked, after a few moments of silence and listening to Johanna and Peeta screaming at each other down the hall. "Staying married?"

"Hope so," Katniss answered. "Maybe sign the paper and everything, make it official. How about you?"

"Definitely staying, if I can," Gale responded, something which might be a soft smile crossing his face. "Sign the paper for real this time. Toasting for real. Anything that your sister wants, really."

"You love her," Katniss said softly, smiling - as in, really smiling - at her best friend. "Thanks for that."

"No need to," he responded, a strange gentleness in his voice. "She's the best thing which ever happens to me."

"For a while, I thought you two had no hope," Katniss said, as the memory of the years between Johanna's games and hers came back to her, again. "All those things you said about her - I think I understand how you felt back then, now."

"Thanks," Gale said quietly, ruffling her hair as if she was a small child. "You're the best little sister anyone can ask for."

"Nah," Katniss disagreed, smiling. "I'm a spoiled, ungrateful kid. I wish I was better sometimes."

"Jo and I made a deal," Gale said, looking up to the ceiling. "When all of these are over, we'll be adults and let you - and Prim and Rory and Vick and Posy and Peeta - be children again. Be spoiled. Play around. Not doing your homeworks. Forgetting all of these mess."

"And I thought you were selfish," Katniss responded, looking up to the ceiling too. "Sorry."

"I'm still selfish," Gale responded, chuckling. "And apparently, as Jo put it so nicely, my ego can easily fill this whole compound. It's just that... Catnip, you're a big sister, too. You know the drill."

"Don't let them get into mess," Katniss began listing, "scold them, but not too harshly and not just for the sake of it. Help them when you can. Chase all the bad people off them. Stand up for them and stand by them. Always put them first, before yourself."

"You got the basics covered, Catnip," Gale replied lightly, winking at her.

And that was how they spent their time, talking quietly about things, just like what they used to do in the old days before the Girl on Fire and the Mockingjay. Until the screaming stopped, and the day officially started.

* * *

**Johanna**

For someone usually so positive and happy, Peeta surely screamed a lot of crazy things.

That actually terrified her a bit, for she felt she was facing some kind of doppelganger, but once her sense of perception kicked in, she knew that she just had to let him scream. Hell, if she had been lifted out of the Arena by the wrong party at the end of the Quell, burnt slowly and painfully up her body every third day, forced to watch one of her fellow prisoners getting tortured with bad memories every third day, and forced to be there and see the other fellow prisoner getting raped on the days the first and second thing didn't happen, she was sure she would want to scream too. And if, on top of that, she was now crippled and frustrated at herself for not being able to walk, and someone had taunted her to keep walking, she knew she would, too, scream. Scream hard and loud, until the whole world knew how frustrated she was. Scream hard and loud, until it was all emptied out and she could be at peace again.

Peeta Mellark was just being normal. And human.

And so, just to make things a bit evened out, she, too, screamed. Screamed alongside him. Screamed against him. Getting him angry at her. Getting them angry together.

It didn't get them far, the first day. He still clung onto that cane for dear life, only improving in terms of walking speed. Then, she took him out to the corridor, and slowly, he learned to go without. There was a bit of regression as they took the cane out of the equation - to quote Gale and Volts' nerds joke - but slowly, the strength on the destroyed leg started coming back. Within four weeks, Peeta was walking in normal speed and running in an alright speed. He'd done much better in the circuit before, back when both his legs were functioning, but at this rate Johanna figured out he would be fine in the battlefield. One less thing to worry about for her.

"Lucky the neighbours are all scared of me," she sarcastically joked to Gale one day, as he gave her yet another 'I-am-tired-of-your-screaming' look when she got back from training Peeta. "Otherwise, I'd have burnt with fifty or so of those scalding looks."

Something flashed in Gale's eyes as she mentioned this, but then he turned away and changed the topic, so she figured out it might not be that important after all. Perhaps just one of Gale's many petty emotions.

There were so many other things for her to get worried about. Caroline, for example. The District Seven girl was, to speak crudely and crassly, fucked flat out. She had to undergo some surgery for her pelvic region was completely messed up, and though at the end they managed to save every organ down there, her head was still messed up. Caroline was, as Panem discovered during the Quell, way less resilient than most other Victors when it came to stress. There was a blessing, though, in that the girl was able to focus on the positive and tone down all the negative. Though the tortures had greatly affected that, they hadn't completely broken her. There were times, though, when she froze in panic attack. And, sometimes, she suddenly forgot everything which happened to her past Ash's reaping day. She would think she was thirteen again, and she would start asking Ash where their brothers were, not remembering they had been gone for six years.

"They're safe," she heard Ash telling his sister one day, as she stood outside the hospital room. "They're with our parents."

She had to turn around and leave, for suddenly, she could picture herself sitting there on the chair, lying to a faceless girl on the bed about another faceless girl who'd died because of her.

Next in the worry list was Annie. And Finnick. They were currently Plutarch's favourite couple, getting followed left and right and recorded. The propos team was currently planning a wedding for the two, just so that they could give Snow a slap on the face. Crazy, extravagant wedding - new, expensive, scarce fabrics spent for dresses, nice food ordered, room decorated, all bells and whistles which Thirteen would not otherwise allowed. Johanna knew they would do Katniss and Peeta's one, or if not that, hers and Gale's, if only they weren't yet married - or faux married, in hers and Gale's case. The poor kids from Four were just an easy alternative target, for they were both Victors and were both affected by Snow. During the two weeks leading up to the wedding, every day, Johanna had been hassled by the team to try on her dress. And so had Katniss. Apparently a propo of Finnick and Annie's wedding would still feature a lot of The Mockingjay and the tragic sister who'd inspired her to rebel.

And today was the wedding day. Johanna and Katniss and Gale and Peeta and the whole squad of Victors' Guard and a bunch of random others had gotten the day off, just so that they could get prepped for the wedding. Every prep team member and stylist they'd grabbed from Capitol was involved, and everyone went in and out in rosters. Johanna had the honour to witness Madge Undersee's first Beauty Base Zero, which the girl took in stride like a champion.

"That's not bad," she told the blonde girl, as they sat together waiting for their toenails to dry. "I must say you have a lot of grace, Madge."

To her surprise, Madge smiled and answered, "all I can say now is that I'm glad I've never been a tribute."

And that's how Johanna confirmed that her second cousin Ash Mason and her former love rival Madge Undersee were truly and still an item. Or a secret item. Or whatever they were.

She didn't see Madge again until they were in the party, for Madge had to go practicing for something. The rest of the afternoon she got to spend with Katniss and the bride Annie, laughing and sharing district gossips like normal girls did the hours before the wedding.

She'd never given a normal life a thought, but now that she'd thought about it, a bit of normalcy here and there were actually refreshing, compared to the constant rollercoaster which was their lives.

Half an hour before the wedding started, the commotions started again. Someone yanked off her robe and helped her into the sleek dark red dress Cinna had designed for her. Someone else slipped her feet into eight inches heels, which she had to apparently wear because Gale had more than one whole foot on her. Add the chaos of the preparation room, and she found herself tittering just so that she didn't fall off.

She managed to get into the room just before the whole procession started. Some of the propos crew member shoved her where she was supposed to be - front row, with Gale, her sisters, and Peeta. She was about to snarl, when a sight in front of her made her halt. Madge and Ash were sitting together, him with guitar, her on a piano Johanna didn't know existed in Thirteen before. They were sharing the piano stool at the moment, talking and laughing. Not cynical laughing, like Ash usually did. Not quiet, half-attempted laughing, like Madge usually did. They were fully laughing, loud and happy.

"Sooo...," she whispered, nudging Katniss, "your best friend seems to have found a man."

"Looks like so," Katniss responded, whispering. "She'd never told me, though, as usual."

There was a faint smile on Katniss's face, though, so Johanna assumed there was no love lost between her sister and Madge.

The gossip soon died down, as the music and procession started. Johanna must say that she'd held her breath, as Annie walked - no, glided - in. The bride wore a pale green dress with sea green embellishments, which undoubtedly was another Cinna creation. She had a veil on and down over her face. And Finnick... oh, gosh, Finnick. In a new suit, simple and dark grey with sea-green lining. He looked... happy. And sad at the same time. No, not sad. Melancholic. Or was it glad?

Johanna didn't know if it was her best friend who was a blubbering mess of emotions, or if it was her.

Madge and Ash finished the song when Annie finally got to Finnick. The ceremony itself went in what seemed like a flash, preceded by a man Gale mentioned was from District Ten. Then there were the traditions - the saltwater-on-lips thing, the draping of the net, and the District Four wedding song which Madge and Ash had learned perfectly. The party kicked off as soon as it finished; chairs taken away and dance floor opened and food served. Johanna didn't know what happened to her, but she actually squealed like a girl when someone pushed in the sea-themed cake, which was definitely Peeta's handiwork he did in between getting prepped and practicing his walking. Both Katniss and Prim shot her a funny look when she did that, but the boys just smiled. Now, Gale's smile was basically not a normal smile. It was a bit different. She didn't know what it was, but there was something there.

Finnick and Annie had a first dance - actually, a second dance, for they'd danced to their traditional wedding song before - and then everyone else were invited to join. The camera crew pushed Johanna and Gale, and Katniss and Peeta, onto the dance floor. Everything was magical, so magical. From the music played by her friends, to Gale's embrace, to the swish of Katniss's orange-red dress as she rocked around with Peeta nearby. Even Delly and Thom danced; her in a multicolor short dress Cinna had fashioned from cuts of the fabric from the Victor girls' dresses, him in a simple yet well-fitted black suit. Towards the end, someone had taken over the piano, and Madge and Ash graced the dance floor. Madge's dress was, too, short and made of leftover cuts. Cinna had overdone himself again, though, for it looked really different from Delly's despite being fashioned from the same material. Ash looked dashing in his suit. They'd dressed all the Victor boys - except Finnick - in simple, dark grey suit, and the Victor Guard boys in black. Whomever's idea that was, Johanna didn't know, but at the end, it all looked good. No, not good. Great.

"You're zoned out as, Cousin Johanna," Ash whispered to her, as they passed each other on the floor.

"And you're in love as, Cousin Ash," Johanna teased back, winking at Madge who winked back.

Between the dances, the cake cutting, and several other things, they lost track of time. Suddenly, it was midnight, and things had to end.

"Bedtime?" she offered, as she saw Peeta limping more than usual on his bad leg.

Everyone agreed, so they all made their way back to their rooms. Johanna found herself walking with Gale, behind Katniss and Peeta and the newlyweds. They were all residents of the same section now. The married couples' section.

As soon as they stepped into the corridor, Annie froze.

"No," she said, looking up at Finnick. "No."

"We'll be alright, Annie," Finnick gently told her, pulling her into an embrace and kissing her temple. "We're safe here. We have these four with us."

Johanna assumed it was another freak-out case, and from her sister's indifference, she could tell Katniss did, too. Their men, however, seemed intrigued.

"I must say I haven't felt good here as well," Peeta finally admitted. "It's like something's wrong here."

"There's actually something wrong," Gale spoke afterwards, in a voice low enough only them could hear. "Jo. Catnip. Have you girls seen any of our neighbours?"

And, with a chill down her spine, Johanna realized what had been wrong all along.

"No," she said, looking around between her companions. "Not around here, after we went back from District Ten."

They woke up on Haymitch's and Mags' rooms' floors the next morning, to the news that the married couples' sector - which was unoccupied except for their three rooms - had caught fire.

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for making it here everyone! See you later in the week with the next chapter :).


	26. Chapter 27: Culminating

**AN: **Hello! Me again here. Thanks for reading, and many special thanks to my reviewers: De-BardatBoston, ellie82, nothing2000, jc52185, and Norbert's Mom. Each and every of you mean a lot to me.

Here I am, with another update. Again, can't resist the urge to roll out yet another one. Basically I've had the entire story written and am just doing minor editing/slight changes on the last few chapters. A big relieve, I must say, for now I've told the story. Though I kind of feel sad to part with it too, having lived and breathed it for the past three months or so.

This chapter is somewhat a filler, now that I've thought about it. No action is going yet, though there will definitely be plenty on the next chapter, which will have them going to war. There's a bit of family and drama in this, though. Oh, and Prim. I've developed her slightly differently from the books (or the stereotype, for I don't think her character was much explored in the books). It just happened; one day, I started writing her and tried putting myself in the shoes of this thirteen-year-old who'd always been sheltered by her sisters but at the same time had watched everyone suffered, and invented this slightly angsty, naive-yet-brave Primrose Everdeen. Let me know what you think about her :).

Oh, and one thing: their Victors' Squad will be pretty gigantic. To make things easier, you could just assume that unless someone had a name, they wouldn't hold an important role in the battle. I know how hard it is to follow too many characters and try to remember who was who.

Anyway, enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** all are Suzanne Collins'. I only own my O.C.s and my plot.

* * *

**Chapter 27: Culminating**

**Katniss**

"Sucks to be you," Ash Mason said, looking around at all three displaced couples, as they sat together on the floor of his living quarters. He shared this place with Wheaton - who was currently nowhere to be seen - and Thom, who'd woken up upon hearing the commotion.

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in," Johanna waved him off dryly, though there was a hint of amusement in her eyes. "We're actually lucky not to roast together there, if you think carefully about it."

"And to have your possessions still with you," Thom commented. He'd been perching quietly on his bunk previously, slightly disoriented from sleep, but alert nevertheless.

Katniss looked down at the bundle of hunting jacket on her lap. They'd all gathered their prized possessions last night before making a run to their mentors' places. She still had the jacket. the pearl, the parachute, the spile, and her bow. Their great-grandfather's ax was safe with Johanna. Though she was still pretty shaken, she could now see how things could have been worse. They could've lost everything. They could've been roasted in their sleep.

"Someone really wants me roasted," Peeta joked, just to ease the situation. As of now, he'd been burned slowly once, and nearly burned to death twice.

"It's not you they're roasting this time," Gale responded, looking amused yet frustrated. "It's me. You're all just extra birds they're trying to kill with that stone."

"Is this the 'defying orders' crap?" Thom asked, sounding angry if not a bit sad.

"Yeah," Gale responded. "Haymitch warned me about it as soon as we landed back. Took them long enough to execute, but I suspect they were waiting for the wedding."

"Care to share us the whole story?" Johanna asked warily, looking a bit pissed.

"Coin didn't want to go through with the rescue."

"Huh?"

"I said," Gale repeated, looking at each of them. "Coin didn't want to go through with the rescue."

"But _why_?" Katniss found herself asking, her blood boiling in her head.

Gale turned away.

"Well, as soon as we heard of the execution, she contacted us to turn around and let it be," Thom explained, looking briefly at Gale before turning back to them. "She said it would be a waste of time, that we have no hope... And none of us was buying it. Gale ended up taking control over the mission."

That took Katniss by surprise. It didn't seem like Gale to go against a superior's order... except if he had no respect for the person. And from what she could see the initial months they were there, Gale worshipped Coin like anything.

But then, it dawned to her that the last few months Gale had been acting more and more on his own. More exactly, since Johanna...

Glancing at her sister, Katniss let her brain form a perception of what people called a "spousal influence".

"Why... why do you think she wanted us dead?" Annie asked, her voice quiet and sad.

"Why else?" Ash barged in, sneering. "She's scared of us. She wants to be the hero. To be worshipped. For a human being, that woman surely has a lot of ambitions. Popular Victors? Get rid of them! Hawthorne thinking on his own? Get rid of him and his wife and the goddamned Victors!"

"Actually," Johanna added. "There's something else."

Katniss turned to her sister, and she could see everyone else doing the same.

"If they'd really executed the three of you," Johanna explained, her voice wavering a bit but determined, "the districts would surely get riled up as. It would be an effortless propo, pretty much. I'm sure the whole country would have been in rebellion if you'd been executed."

"But then, why would Snow want the execution?" Thom drilled, frowning.

"The districts had all been scared and obeying for too long," Finnick barged in, his face serious and thoughtful. "For a while, Snow has been thinking he's invincible. He's had enough... enough victories in his life, that he thought there's no chink in his armour. His only strategy in life was to kill those who were on his way, and to try to control others. I guess he just reverted to his default of killing, when it became apparent none of Peeta, Caroline, and Annie would tell him anything."

"So," Johanna said, "to summarise, you think he's going all loony?"

"Kind of," Finnick answered, looking around at all of them. "Even Snow has a breaking point."

There was silence, as none of them said anything.

"So," Katniss finally asked, looking around. "What do you think comes next?"

Before the question was answered, though, the door had flown open and a hassled Wheaton had barged in, with a pale, wide-eyed Caroline.

"What is this?" Ash snapped, jumping up standing.

"They're going freaking insane!" Wheaton shouted, sounding angrier and more fiery than usual. "She was _sleeping_ the whole night, and they said she went out _burning her friends alive_!"

* * *

Another round of finger-pointing and blaming game, just like the one happening after Ash's drugging case, happened. This time, though, all of the Victors and their guards knew where to point the finger to. Alma Coin, who exactly wanted every of them dead.

And thus, Coin's own plan backfired on her. Now that they could play the 'we-are-not-safe-here' card, the Victors could negotiate some new living and training arrangements in exchange of more propos and district appearances.

Ash's first district visit - to Five, which had begun rebelling - earned the Victors privilege to always choose who they wanted in their combat units for all future battles and visits. At first, they'd nabbed Soldier Boggs, Coin's right hand man, in the hope that it would distract Coin. Well, turned out the woman didn't care about him too, true to her coldheartedness. But Soldier Boggs was actually an excellent comrade and combatant, and thus they'd retained him.

A tear-jerking propo starring Annie and Finnick and their love story earned them a new, secured block of living quarters, close to Command that they knew they would always be safe.

Once Caroline sufficiently calmed down from her ordeal and regained most of her bearings, she volunteered to speak on camera about her parents and little brothers and how she'd been forced to watch them all killed after her older brother Ash stood up against Snow. That was a big one, for it earned all their non-Victor and non-guard family members immunity and exemption from combat duties.

Life wasn't peaceful and all good. But it was safe enough, and good enough for the time being. After all, they were at war. At a war that, Katniss realized more and more as days went by, apart from freeing them Victors from Capitol and Snow's clutches, did little for their wellbeing.

"We should have just run away," she told Johanna quietly one day, as they had a sisters' time in the little cupboard Katniss had found the night Peeta was rescued. "Take the boys, take our friends, take Prim and Ma. I don't know where this war would take us."

"I know," her big sister responded, sounding resigned and somewhat cynical. "We can't just bail out now, though. We're too far in. Would you rather be known as Katniss Everdeen, Panem's biggest war deserter?"

"Better than Katniss Everdeen, the girl who got everyone killed," Katniss replied, leaning her head tiredly against Johanna's shoulder. "I can live with deserting. I can't live knowing I've gotten everyone killed."

"Look," Johanna said, gently pushing her upright. "This is probably gonna make me hate myself, but I've got to tell you this. The moment you made that little love speech after volunteering for Prim, you've basically sold your soul to this rebellion. Add on the Star-Crossed Lovers thing and the nightlock berries, and your Quell interview of working with others for their survival, and you're basically the rebellion. You don't have a way out, Katniss."

She sat there and looked at the wall, as she let her sister's words sink in. The more she let them in, the more they weighed her down. Breathing suddenly seemed so hard. She found herself gasping, as her chest constricted.

Johanna sat there and held her as she took short breaths to still her panic. Her big sister caressed her hair, and she buried her head deeper into Johanna's chest, feeling her sister's hitched breaths and the tears which fell on her head.

"I wish I had the courage to die in my Games," Johanna said, inhaling deeply to stifle the sobs. "You could have been happy. You could have been in the woods now, lost in your little world of joy. You could have been just a girl. Not this rebellion icon."

All panic gone, Katniss jolted up and slapped her sister.

"Don't. you. dare. Joey!" she hissed. "You think I could have been happy if you'd died?"

Her sister just looked away.

"The answer's no," Katniss answered her own question, grabbing her sister firmly on the shoulders. "I would have volunteered for a random person, just so that I could go there and kill Snow for you! And I'd get shot! I'd be dead too! We would be two dead sisters!"

"Damned fucking shit," Johanna muttered, laughing through tears. "Either way, we're all screwed. I blame you for this, Brainless."

"Blame's mine," Katniss answered, firmly and staunchly. "You're right, Joey. There's no way out. We have to go on."

Johanna turned back to her and looked at her.

"No one's gonna touch you when I'm alive, Kitty," she said, as firm and staunch as Katniss had been. "Not even over my dead body. You're gonna live."

"No," Katniss disagreed, looking determinedly at her sister. "_We_ are gonna live".

(And yes, they did live. Both of them.)

* * *

The whole country was in rebellion.

Johanna and Ash had an inappropriate field day as they woke up to the news coming from District Two, the only one not currently under rebel control. Actually, everyone was having an inappropriate field day, though not many of them were brave enough to shed a light on their inhumane sides and publicly rejoiced like Johanna and Ash did.

A day before that late autumn day, the District Two rebels - led by one of its past Victors, Lyme - had stolen a whole lot of dynamites from one of Capitol's storages in Two. They planted the things around Panem's biggest Peacekeeper base, "The Nut", and blew it up. In the process, they managed to trap and kill a large number of Peacekeepers inside it. The news had shed a whole lot of light on the Peacekeeper situation. The entire Panem now knew where the majority of their Peacekeepers came from. Not from Capitol, for most of their spoiled, self-indulging citizens would not in a million year wanted to live a life of trainings and regimens, but from Two. With Two under rebel control and its main source of Peacekeepers gone, the Capitol was definitely screwed.

A week later, The Capitol called for mandatory military service for its citizens. Every Capitol family was now to nominate a family member for military service. Now, the Victors and Guards all knew that the Capitol Citizens would not perhaps even be able to run to save their lives. To call for such thing was a desperate measure, and it could only mean one thing.

Coriolanus Snow was getting really, really screwed.

Came another month, then another one, Capitol was pretty much a dead city with no food supplies and dwindling amount of power. The little electricity they still had was reserved for broadcasts and government buildings. Now, Capitol was essentially just another district - with some parts worse off than the other, though not as bad as it could be in the districts. From what one of the rebels' spies said, people from less cashed-up parts of the Capitol were already antsy with the possibility of dying from hunger and cold, for the winter was coming full-force.

And meanwhile, the Victors and their Guards found themselves training for their last mission: taking over the Capitol.

... and trying to oust Alma Coin, somehow.

Drill Sergeant Gale Hawthorne had outdone himself with the drills this time. In addition to the daily trainings they had with the rest of District Thirteen, they were too subjected to the nighttime drills, during which they really practiced their Capitol invasions and tried talking strategies. No one bothered with Plans A, B, C, D, E, and F this time. There were just too many decision points, too many different scenarios of what could happen.

"There's only one goal in this," Gale reminded them one day, as they sat in circle after the drills. They had the full team there tonight. Finnick. Annie. Caroline. Ash. Madge. Thom. Delly. Wheaton. Johanna. Gale. Peeta. Katniss.

"And may I know what the goal is, Commander?" Johanna asked, leaning against his shoulder.

"Goal's to get The Capitol to surrender," Gale answered, circling an arm around Johanna somewhat distantly. It was obvious that right now the battle was more interesting than Johanna for him. Katniss found herself restraining a laughter, as her sister pouted. As in, truly pouting. Not trolling. Sometimes, Johanna could actually be a girl.

"So," Ash asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are we not killing that fucking bastard Snow?"

"Yet," Gale responded. A fire - the fire - started flickering in his eyes, as he continued. "We'll put him on trial and get him to admit each and every thing he's done. Then, it's off to the Firing Squad for him."

"But why?" Wheaton asked, looking dissatisfied. "That Bastard took everything from all of us! We should just go after him!"

Since the rescue, Wheaton had gone a bit off the handle. He sometimes scared Peeta, who'd never seen his brother this angry and spiteful before. But Katniss could somehow understand him. If it was Prim they'd taken and burnt slowly until her nerves roasted, she would have been more furious than hell. You couldn't just shake that protectiveness you felt towards your younger brother.

Hell, she was too a hundred times angrier at Snow, after seeing what happened to her kind, gold-hearted boy. And she was sure everyone else was, too. For Peeta, Caroline, and Annie.

"Kids," Haymitch, who'd been quietly observing their training, barged in. "Remember the enemy."

"Yeah," Finnick agreed somewhat quietly. "Snow's just one of the enemies. We shouldn't just spend all our resources on him. We need to play this game well."

There was silence for a while, as none of them knew what to say.

"When are we gonna go?" Peeta quietly asked, next to her. He had a hand on the small of her back, and she could feel him tensing in an uneasy anticipation, even just for a bit.

"Haymitch and I are working on it," Gale answered, looking around at everyone else in the room. "Right now, it doesn't look too far away."

"And how long is this 'not too far away'?" Katniss asked, for she couldn't stay quiet anymore.

Gale eyed Haymitch, and the mentor nodded.

"Next week," he finally answered. "Or maybe sooner. This is the right time. We'll have to get there before they found a new way to survive."

And truly, soon it was.

Katniss woke up, next to Peeta, to a soft knock on the door the next morning.

"Kitty."

And that was her sister, Johanna.

She put her shirt, buttoned the first few buttons - not bothering with the pants at all, for after all, it was just Johanna - and headed to her door to answer it. Opening it only slightly, at first, for her Victor's paranoia still took over. And truly, it was her sister. Standing there, looking sad yet determined.

"It's happening."

She should have been ready, should have been excited for this, but all she could do was staring at her sister, as it sank in.

"We're going to the Capitol tomorrow, Kitty. It's fucking happening."

Tomorrow. Twenty four hours and a bit from now.

She found herself in this emotional, stifling embrace with Johanna a few seconds later.

* * *

**Johanna**

It was happening, for all of them. They had all passed their combat-readiness test.

The fact that Annie, Peeta, and Caroline, who were all still pretty much handicapped from their tortures, had passed with alright scores, told Johanna that it was all a bluff. Coin just wanted to put all of them young Victors in the battlefield, obviously so that she had full control of what was happening in Thirteen.

For once, Johanna didn't mind the rigging, for that was part of their plan. They were all going to the Capitol, no exception. It would be much easier to break away from Coin and her stupid plans later if they didn't have anything she could use as leverage.

Haymitch had arranged a genius plan to hijack a hovercraft and bring their families to a safe refuge, where they were to hide until the rebels had take over the Capitol - or perhaps, until both Snow and Coin were dead. Cecelia and her husband would run this mission, as their children would be among the ones saved. With the hovercraft, they were also bringing Beetee and Mags and the other mentors. Haymitch would stay back and hide with Blight, so that they could take down Coin, once the evil woman thought she was safe. They had secretly talked to a group of people who'd also wanted the woman dead, for all the good reasons.

Things were looking good, so far.

She was standing inside the cramped Command now - finally - with everyone else who were going to the Capitol in the Victors' Squad.

Gale. Katniss. Peeta.

Finnick. Annie. Ash. Caroline.

Wheaton. Madge. Thom. Delly.

Soldier Boggs. Twin girl soldiers from Thirteen - Leeg1 and Leeg2. Three other soldiers from Thirteen: Jackson, Homes, and Mitchell.

There was this thing in District Thirteen, that each squad had eight - or multiple of eight, so that they could be divided into sub-squads - members at all times, thus they were waiting for six new soldiers to join them. Plutarch had this propaganda idea of letting refugees from the districts volunteer for this position, and for one last time, they'd decided to let him be. Those six volunteers would most probably go to Capitol with another squad anyway, if there hadn't been this volunteering thing. Some people were just bitter, too bitter towards the Capitol they would do anything to destroy it.

... just like Ash and Johanna. And to some extent Finnick. And Gale. And Katniss. And recently, Madge - Margaret - Undersee and Wheaton Mellark.

They'd been informed that the volunteers recruiting was a success. They weren't the only people Capitol had hurt. And they weren't the only ones who'd been brave enough to stand up.

"Here they come," she heard Ash muttering under his breath. "Looking good."

And true, the volunteers were coming. One by one, in single file, through the door.

First, a tough-looking young man with District Eight appearance. Johanna recognized him from her visit there a few months earlier. He'd been one of Paylor's star gunmen, taking down at least two Capitol hovercrafts.

Then another young man, who looked Four. Finnick and Annie tensed visibly when he walked in; they must have known each other one way or another.

A bespectacled girl, whose appearance screamed Three.

Another girl, with flaming red hair, who looked just like some past tributes from Five.

A tall young woman who was most likely from Eleven.

And, lastly, a very familiar, dark-straight-haired and dark-eyed boy. Prim's new friend from Seven - and Ash's old friend - Sven Lee.

Johanna couldn't help but groaning, as it dawned on her that they would have a fifteen year old - with no previous combat experiences - on the team. She had a feeling they would all be mentoring, all over again.

"Hey, hey, hey, boy!" Ash exclaimed, jumping over the table and grabbing the boy on his collar. "What are you doing here?!"

Sven just looked up casually at Ash, as if the man had just told him off for stealing a candy from the jar.

"Volunteering," he answered, almost too easy-goingly. "They opened the spot, and they let me go with you all. I'm not going to turn back."

Gale and Boggs chose that very moment to begin their briefing - most probably intentionally, judging the look on Gale's face. Feeling annoyed that the interesting quarrell was cut short, Johanna turned back to her boyfriend and the only District Thirteen soldier she would trust, and tried focusing on what they said.

It turned out that they would all leave together, but at some point, be separated for the greater good.

Those with aptitude to shooting would join the team of sharpshooters, codenamed the Hawks. Those who did better in close-range combats and ambushes would join the melee team, the Gulls. The rest of them, those with aptitude towards stealth and guerrilla warfare, would join the Jays. Whose task was to infiltrate Capitol institutions to steal their information, and use it to turn the Capitol citizens against their own government to help them winning the war.

It didn't quite surprise Johanna, though. What surprised her is the announcement that came later.

She was to captain the Jays.

"What?" she hissed, after it was announced. To tell the truth, Captain of the Guerrillas sounded similar to Queen of the Universe. But she'd never thought of herself as a leader - hell, she didn't know if she could lead at all - and thus it took her by surprise.

"You're the best candidate for the position, Soldier Johanna Everdeen," Boggs said, looking at her. "According to your scores, you have a stealthy mind, and a high sense of perception. Not to mention spontaneity."

Now, this was unusual, and it even annoyed herself, but she found it hard to concentrate on the briefing from then on. Her. Leading the Jays. With Peeta and Annie in it. Guarded by Delly, Mitchell, Homes, and, the girl volunteers from Three and Five. What on earth was happening?

For one who had no allies in her Games, and relied solely on her survival skills in her daily life, she surely was given a brand new, challenging role.

Boggs and Gale would be leading the Hawks, which consisted of Katniss, Caroline, Madge - Soldier Margaret Undersee, as she was now called -, one of the Leeg sisters, and the volunteer boys from Eight and Four. The rest of them were Gulls, Captained by Jackson and Finnick. They were all to leave at sunset the next day, and had all been given the morning and afternoon off to spend with their families.

It was only then, as she made her way out of Command and to the lift, she realized what was actually happening. Compared to the Hawks, who would need to stand within weapon range to the enemies, and the Gulls, who would have to charge the enemies head on, being a Jay sounded like a safe job. She was assigned to Captain the members of the team whom they thought wouldn't survive being a Hawk or a Gull. In other words, another babysitting job. Or, perhaps, could be because they thought she was weak.

Oh, well. Not that she minded too much anyway. They were still going to war. And actually, doing random, erratic things just to take the Capitol by surprise sounded fun. In fact, as she was walking now, her brain was already forming ideas of what she would make her team do.

Gale didn't say a word when she got out of the lift on her mother and Prim's floor, with Katniss in tow, and so did Peeta. There seemed to be an understanding among them, that tonight, Johanna and Katniss would be all Prim's. Johanna had a feeling that they were heading for their families too - or what remained of their families, in both their cases. All four of them would have the hovercraft journey, and the first few days of the mission, together as couples and siblings anyway.

"What should we say?" Katniss asked her quietly, as they walked through the corridors. For a moment, she sounded like the little lost girl she actually was, instead of this rebellion icon they made her to be.

"Just be brave," Johanna answered, equally quietly. "They're terrified enough already, without any of us breaking down."

Katniss halted and leaned against the dull grey wall.

"I'm scared," she admitted, throwing her head back and closing her eyes. "Joey, I'm scared."

Johanna stopped and turned to face her sister.

"Know what?" she asked the younger girl, chuckling to herself. "I'm scared too."

They both laughed, for it was so ridiculous and they had nothing else they could do about it.

"Come on," Johanna decided finally, offering a hand for her sister to take. "We've both won The Hunger Games. There's nothing we can't win."

Instantly, she knew it was a terrible lie, for there was the third Quarter Quell and the sixteen Victors who'd perished in it. However, it seemed good enough for Katniss for the time being, for her sister took her hand. Together, they made their way to their mother and sister's living quarters, holding their breaths the whole time.

Their little sister answered the door, and straight away said, "you guys are going to war."

Katniss tensed, and Johanna found herself with the difficult task of responding to the cold, angst-laden statement.

"Yes, Primrose," she said, her voice foreign and small. "Katniss and I are going to war."

"You are leaving me."

She should have seen it coming, considering how much her baby sister had changed over the past years. But still, she wasn't ready to hear that. She was expecting that hysterical cry she'd seen the day she got reaped, or the sweet sadness she'd seen the day Katniss got reaped.

But this Prim was different. She wasn't the innocent child who just wanted to be happy. She wasn't the gentle young lady who was just trying to live her life.

This Prim was on fire, just like her big sisters.

"You. Are. Leaving. Me!"

"Well, Brat," Johanna responded, cold and firm, "we've left you so many times before. And we've always come back. Stop being a Drama Queen."

"Screw this! Screw this, you _Victors_! I'm sick of your dismissal!"

That response took Johanna aback. Not for what it was, but for whom it came from. Judging Katniss's besieged posture, it had also taken the middle girl back. None of them had never seen Prim like this before.

"Girls," their mother interrupted, from inside the room, "come inside. Don't shout at each other at the corridor like that. And Primrose, I don't want you to speak like that to your sisters. They're just trying to be good older sisters to you."

Prim spun around and stormed in, leaving the door wide open. Johanna stomped behind her, dragging Katniss by the wrist. She couldn't let this slide. And she couldn't let Katniss get away from this as well. They weren't going to go without setting their sister straight.

"Alright," their mother said, once the Everdeen girls all stood in the middle of the room, not able to look at each other in the eyes. "Johanna. Katniss. We've heard you are both getting deployed tomorrow, with Gale and Peeta and the others. Do you know what's going to happen?"

"Wish I could tell you, but it's the war," Johanna responded, grasping Katniss's hand quickly to let her younger sister know she'd gotten their backs. "So far, though, the odds have always been in our favour, so I don't think we have anything to worry about."

"Lies," Prim called quickly, looking up at Johanna. "I know you're scared, Jo. I can sense your fear. Stop mollycoddling me. I'm not a kid anymore."

_But you're a kid_, Johanna said in her heart. _You're my kid sister, and you'll forever be_.

"Girls," their mother called, stroking Johanna and Katniss's upper arms. "Please tell us what's happening. We need to know. We're your family."

Upon hearing this, Katniss lifted her head and turned to the woman.

"No," the middle girl said, firm and fiery. "We haven't been a family in a while. We haven't been a family since Pa's gone!"

In all honesty, Johanna wished that Katniss would just drop the issue. It was stale and long overdue now, and Katniss had had years to spill her heart to their mother. But then, slowly, a realization dawned on her. No one had ever confronted this issue before. Not even Johanna, who was supposedly brave and daring and always taking the issues head-on.

They could no longer run away from it.

Next to her, her baby sister turned white in shock. She kicked one of the chair, subtly, Prim's direction, just so that the younger girl had something to fall onto if she needed be. And true, it was necessary. Prim shrunk to the chair, slowly.

Their mother, though, looked brazen. Never had Johanna thought the woman would be this brave again, facing her issues and taking her responsibilities. There was once a time she was brave, back before her husband - her girls' father - passed away.

Looked like the woman was truly getting herself back.

"You're supposed to take care of us, Ma!" Katniss screamed, her eyes watering as she looked at the woman. "You couldn't just leave us on our own like that! You left us starving! If it wasn't for Joey, we would all have been dead now!"

"And Kitty," Johanna quickly added, glancing at her middle sister. "If it wasn't for me and Kitty, we would all have been dead now."

"I know," their mother answered, looking at them. There was this steady stream of tears trickling down her face - she had always been sensitive and mellow, unlike their optimistic, happy father - but she looked at them in the eyes. Prepared to take more.

"The tesserae," Katniss continued, glancing at Johanna. The angry tears was now brimming in her eyes; Katniss was ready to cry. "You spend years wallowing in self pity, Ma, and we took tesserae to feed everyone! And we hunted! We never played like other children! All because you refused to be the adult!"

"I know," the woman responded, firm and staunch. "I know."

"You know how many times Joey's name was in, that year when she got reaped?" Katniss asked, her voice low and dangerous. "Twenty. Twenty times, Ma! And she was supposed to only have four! You sent her to the Games! You've sent your daughter to the Games!"

"Well," Johanna chimed in, for she had to set the truth straight here. "We don't know if it's one of the three, or one of the extra twenty seven. But it's more likely to be one of the extra ones. So, yes, Ma, you have the 4:1 odds to be the one who'd sent me to the Games."

"I know. And I know I would never be able to forgive myself for it."

Katniss let out a strangled cry and started sobbing, the angry tears streaming freely down her face.

"He sold her for two and a half years, Ma," the middle girl said, trying hard to control her sobs enough to speak. "He took her everything! And have you ever cared? Have you ever tried figuring out what happened? Have you ever realized that she withdrew? You left it up to me and Prim to talk to her, and sat around all day feeling sorry for yourself! We were just kids, Ma! How on earth were we supposed to know what to do?"

"You weren't, Katniss," the woman responded, still crying but still staunch. "I was supposed to know."

Katniss took a deep breath and turned to the side of the room, her sobs turned into gasps as she quieted down.

"It's too late, Ma," she said, waving the woman off. "Glad that you finally realized, but you're way too late."

Johanna turned to Katniss and pressed her body against her sister's back, resting her chin on Katniss's shoulder. The younger girl looked at her over her shoulder, and grasped her hand, before turning back to the wall next to them. All her anger had been spent.

And it was then Johanna realized that Katniss's angst towards their mother wasn't mainly for herself. Sure, the middle girl might have been mourning a childhood lost to trying to survive and taking care of sisters, but mostly, Katniss was angry for her and Prim. She had been loved. Fiercely, selflessly.

"Actually," she said afterwards, slowly pulling away from her younger sister. "That's all the extent of your blames, Ma. Everything after that was entirely me. I screwed up. I made the bastard go after me. I sent my sister to the Games."

Their mother strode over to hug them. Johanna relented, for it didn't do any of them harm, and, to her surprise, Katniss relented as well. They were all broken together now.

"I'm proud of you girls," the woman whispered, kissing each of them on the temple. "My strong girls. My beautiful girls."

She looked at Prim, who was looking at them with teary eyes.

"And I'm proud of you too, Primrose. My strong, sweet girl."

And at this, Prim wasn't having it anymore. She stood up and ran to them, breaking down in tears with all of them. Now, all the Everdeen women were broken together.

"Stop this," Johanna said a while later, laughing to herself. "We're not going to give Snow a field day, are we?"

"Sure we're not," Katniss responded, laughing as well. "Let's just spend a happy night."

And a happy night they did spend. Talking happy stories about their husband and father, catching up on each other's lives, the friendships they had made, and the war plans. At one stage they had all fallen asleep, pressed to each other, on the floor mattress, just like in their old days back in the Seam. Even Buttercup, the cat, seemed to know not to intrude. He just sat there at the corner, staring at them.

They woke up to the usual call the next morning, feeling emptied out but at the same time full. As the two older girls left to be prepared for their mission, they took one last look at their sad, proud mother and their terrified yet determined baby sister. And it was then, right then, Johanna again felt a hunch. It wasn't as violent as the ones she'd felt the day she got reaped, and that other day when Prim got reaped and Katniss volunteered, but still, it was the same hunch.

Her Pa was telling her something.

(And yes, Katniss had the same hunch. First Lady Johanna Hawthorne and her sister Katniss Mellark, wife to the Secretary of Communication, would find out about it as they sat together reminiscing, the morning before the celebration of Republic of Panem's Twenty Fifth Anniversary.)

* * *

**Katniss**

The prep team scrubbed and prepped her skin, though they did leave her face plain. Perhaps Cinna or Venia had knocked some sense into Octavia and Flavius's heads and told them that it didn't matter, because it was a war and not a party.

Octavia and Flavius were too sad to hold their tears back long enough to say goodbye, but Venia stayed long enough to kiss her on the cheek and wish that the odds would always be in their favour.

"Take care of your big sister," she said, just before she left to see Johanna next door. "She'd been through a lot."

"I know," Katniss responded, smiling to her favourite prep team member. "A good big sister, that one. With just the right amount of snark."

Venia chuckled - no, laughed - with her, and strode over to give her another kiss on the cheek.

Cinna came in next, with his newest creation. Her battle suit - or battle uniform, to be more exact. She'd requested to wear the same thing the entire Victors' Squad would wear. They were all in this together, and she didn't want to be singled out. Mostly because she wanted nothing more than to fight along them, and none of this Mockingjay fiasco.

"Hope you like this," the stylist said, as he unzipped the garment bag. "So far, everyone else does."

"Even Ash Mason?" Katniss joked, for she couldn't skip that one.

"Even Ash Mason," Cinna confirmed, smiling.

The thing was now out. It was just a combat uniform, the same gray pants and shirt that everyone else was wearing. But knowing Cinna, Katniss knew it wasn't just the same old thing. There must be something special with the material, or parts of the design yet to be revealed.

"This fabric doesn't burn," he informed, splaying the fabric on his hand for her to inspect. "It would, eventually, if you keep trying; but it would last long enough for anything you would encounter in the battlefield."

To tell the truth, fire wasn't the first thing Katniss was worried about.

"Is it...?"

"Yes," Cinna answered, even before she finished the question. "No one would be able to shoot you in this. Except around the chinks."

"And where are the chinks?" Katniss asked.

Cinna showed her the part around the seams and inside the elbows and behind the knees, which did feel a bit different from the rest.

"You need to be able to move and bend," he explained. "You can't wear a seamless armour."

She nodded, and stood still, as he helped her into the thing. It was to date the most comfortable costume she'd ever been in, and the safest she'd felt in. He put on one of the shoes, and let her put the other one, just so that she knew how to do it in the future. Once her holsters were on, it was all done. She was ready for combat.

"How do you like your looks?" he asked her, as they stood in front of the mirror examining her new looks.

"It's alright, I guess," she answered honestly. "I've never imagined myself as a war soldier, but it's happening. I can't just go back."

He crouched down and put his hands on her shoulders.

"There's no room for betting now, really, but if there is one, I'm still betting on you," he said.

"And the rebels?" Katniss asked, smiling back.

"And the rebels," he confirmed, chuckling slightly. "We are all in this together, aren't we?"

"Yes," Katniss agreed. "All in this together. To a better Panem."

A knock on the door told them that it was time to leave. With one last look at the soldier girl on the mirror, and one last semi-conscious run on her now short, neck-length hair, Katniss followed her stylist to the Hovercraft bay, where everyone else had been waiting.

"In case you need reassurance," Cinna quietly said, right before he left her there with her sister, her boyfriend, and her friends, "reach your chin down towards your heart."

She didn't try it right then, but as they all piled into their hovercraft, she lifted her hand and traced down that track between her chin and her heart. There were some names there, embossed to the fabric in a way it was invisible from outside.

The names of those people who were her world.

**to be continued...**

* * *

So... they're going to the Capitol.

I'll see you later this week with the first half of their time in Capitol. If this makes people feel better: none of the rebel Victors would be dead at the end of the war.

Have a good week! :)


	27. Chapter 28: Fighting

**AN: **Hello. Me again here. With the next update. Thanks for reading and staying with this story to this point. We're nearing the end now.

I'd like to welcome new follower Suomikissa, and to thank sweetcharite for favouriting this story. Many special thanks to my reviewers: jc52185, nothing2000, De-BardatBoston, ellie82, Norbert's Mom, and axes tridents and snares. All of you readers, followers, favouriters, and reviewers rock :).

This chapter is massive. And I've been trying to find any breakpoint I can use to split this in two, but never managed to find one. So here it is, in one big update. Nine thousand something words. Get a cuppa (i.e cup of tea) and make yourself comfortable on the couch before you start. Hope you'll enjoy it :).

**Disclaimer: **THG and its characters and settings belong to Suzanne Collins. I'm only borrowing them to tell this story. There are several O.C.s. Now, those ones belong to me.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty Eight: Fighting**

**Katniss**

From Thirteen, they were transported first to Two, where they would stay the night before positioning themselves to invade the Capitol early the next morning.

Each of them were assigned a personal tent, but at the end, six of those ended up empty. Delly had moved to Thom's; Annie to Finnick's; Johanna to Gale's; and Katniss to Peeta's. There were also two other pairs sharing tents. The fresh-minted, whirlwind, somewhat mismatched, yet strangely sweet couple Ash, twenty three and hardened, and Madge, eighteen and wide-eyed yet determined. And friends Wheaton and Caroline, the only pair whose motivation of sleeping in the same tent was to help warding off nightmares. Aside of Caroline and Wheaton, of course, no one would really be sleeping. This could be the last night of calm they would have in a while.

... or forever. No one knew what was going to happen.

They had to keep their lips on each other all the times, just so that they didn't make any sound which could possibly wake any sleeping person up. Katniss didn't particularly want the district Thirteen soldier and the volunteers - especially Sven Lee, who was really young - to know anything about their bedroom business, and Peeta had agreed wholeheartedly. Add their unfortunate tent arrangement - sandwiched between Johanna and Gale, and Wheaton and Caroline - and they were insane to even think about making a sound. No, clearly not when your big sister or big brother was sleeping next door.

Afterwards, they just laid together, like the old, innocent days the initial months after their victory. Those days seemed ages away now, though in reality only one and a half years had passed since. And they'd agreed that they'd aged hard and fast, leaving their childhood and entering adulthood before they were meant to.

"Katniss," Peeta quietly called her, just as she was about to drift off.

"Huh?" she responded.

"Promise me something," he said, sweet yet solemn. "No matter what happens, you will keep going. You'll let what'd happened be."

Her eyes snapped open, and she looked at him. Sad, weary, yet gentle blue eyes looked back at her, a calloused hand running down her new short hair and down her neck and spine.

"Have you just said someone's gonna die?" she asked him quietly, for she didn't mind being vulnerable when she's with him.

"Yes, Katniss," he confirmed, pressing a kiss on her temple. "That's what I meant. We're at war. As much as I want everyone to be alright, I know it's near impossible."

She snuggled against him and rested her head on his chest, so that she could hear his heart beating. It did, steadily, as steady as he was.

"Promise me another thing," he said quietly, a few seconds later.

"And what is this?" she asked.

"You won't kill anyone unless you really have to."

"I won't," she responded, looking up at him. "I've had enough blood in my hands."

* * *

**Johanna**

Even though Gale acted all calm and calculating, he was actually as frantic and scared as everyone else inside. Johanna didn't think many others realized, but in reality, the Commander was just a little more than a boy himself.

He didn't tell her, but she knew that. And there was little she could do right now, except helping him venting out. So that was what she did. Afterwards, they just lied on their sides, taking each other's presence in, like they did that night they came back together the previous year.

"You need to learn how to talk shit out," she reprimanded him, as he looked at her - somewhat sheepishly. "I can't keep doing this for you. We'll be dysfunctional in no time."

He looked away upon hearing this.

"I believe you can talk stuff out for me," he told her afterwards.

She rolled her eyes and let out a tired sigh. He was running away from things again - like he usually did, when overwhelmed. Oh well, didn't really matter. She knew herself. She could definitely talk stuff - or shit - out for him, if it needed be.

(At some point, he did grow up and learn how to talk things out. But it wasn't going to happen for a few more years, and no matter what happened, even if he was the President later, she would always be better in talking.)

They laid there in silence for a few minutes, until suspicious noises started from the nearby tents. She laughed upon realizing who it was. Or who it were.

One shouldn't really underestimate the lungs of quiet, timid girls. Or dismiss the fact that they clearly enjoyed it best.

Gale looked disturbed as he turned back to her.

"Is that...?"

She nodded and started laughing, for the combination of the look on his face and what was happening nearby was just plain hilarious.

He started grimacing, and she found herself laughing louder.

"We're not going to sleep near them again," he said afterwards, closing his eyes and nuzzling the top of her head, burying his face on the short spikiness her hair was now.

"Well, Commander," she responded, still laughing as she pressed her chest against his, "let's see what we could do after this war."

(Unfortunately, Gale would not end up getting his wish, and they were going to spend some more nights in a room nearby to the noisemakers, in a Capitol apartment. It was even weirder for they would share their room with Johanna's family - or what remained of - but in the aftermath of the war, really, they didn't have a choice.)

* * *

_Day One: All Team Members Alive._

The back-of-truck ride to Capitol wasn't clearly the most pleasant of all rides. By the time they got there, she was ready to puke her guts out. And judging the others' faces - except that of the District Thirteen soldiers - she wasn't the only one feeling the same. Definitely, she wasn't the one feeling it the worst. Annie, poor Annie, had ran straight up to a gutter to vomit right after they halted. And Finnick, being the good husband he was, had ran after her so that he could stand behind her, though there was currently no hair to hold. All the Victors' Squad girls had decided to cut their hair short, even though no one in particular asked them to. Looked like Johanna wasn't the only one to see how impractical long hair would be in the battlefield.

The boys apparently had a pact of some sort to get the District Thirteen soldiers' buzz-cut, and they were all sporting it now. Some of them looked better in it than the others, Johanna must say, but at the end, it helped with the brotherhood spirit. Even her jerkass best friend Ash looked and acted part of the team now. Perhaps it wasn't only the hair - Johanna had a feeling that Madge's influence had a role in it - but nevertheless it was good. This wasn't going to be yet another Hunger Games. Twenty four of them would go in, but they would do it as a team. Not as competitors trying to stay alive, but as a team keeping everyone alive.

(The ideal and the reality was pretty much different, but still, plenty of them survived at the end. And they definitely worked together. Not against each other.)

Once everyone was back up and composed, they began their entrance to Capitol. The city was pretty much barricaded, and all the entrances guarded. But there was this one small entrance guarded by a single sentry, and it was what they used. Johanna didn't know much of what happened to the sentry. When it was her turn to pass the gate, the Peacekeeper was already on the ground. Looked like whoever of the Gullss went in first had made their first kill.

"Captain," Peeta reminded next to her, "do you know where are we?"

The Jays' Holo - a little device containing all the cheats of what kind of traps awaited them in the Capitol - hung around her neck on a chain. She reached for it and started reading. The place they stood at turned out to be the Garbage Processing Facility; that gate they entered from the passage for the workers, who all came from this poor village in District Two.

"This looks to easy," Finnick commented, scanning around the empty - if not pungent - place. "Be careful."

"You got it right, Captain," Ash barged in, unholstering one of his Beetee-crafted hatchets. "Who knows what kind of creatures they planted down here."

Well, that totally turned out to be paranoia. The dumpster was clean - not from rubbish, but from mutts and traps. What awaited them at the other end, though, wasn't a pleasant surprise. Dressed in rebel grey as well - with their camera equipments and some handguns as a mean of self defense - were Cressida and the camera crew.

"What are they doing here?!" Johanna hissed angrily at Finnick, as Boggs and Gale negotiated a talk with the crew.

"Plutarch," Finnick hissed back, sounding annoyed though not anywhere near angry as Johanna. "Should have known he's not gonna let this one slide."

"Alright, Squad!" Gale's voice roared, once the negotiation finished. "Cressida and the crew are going to film all of us today and tomorrow, for documentary purposes. They would try not to intervene with anything, and should you have any concern, you are free to give them back off orders."

"Great," Johanna muttered under her breath. "Just perfect."

"Soldier Johanna Everdeen. Any concerns?"

And yes, of course, her boyfriend was in Commander mode today.

"No, not much," she snarled back, unwilling to give it up. "Just mourning the loss of privacy and confidentiality here, as Captain of Jays."

The look Gale gave her might be best described as pissed, but then he turned away and ignored her. Looked like she wasn't going to get her way this time, but at least he acknowledged some truth behind her words.

She managed to get away from the camera for most of the times, just by sliding behind a larger member of the team. Her sister, though, wasn't so lucky. The camera was always on Katniss - of course, she thought. They were there for Katniss.

"Hey, hey, hey!" she heard Ash reprimanding the crew one time. "Not on her face! How is she gonna look ahead with you standing there?"

With a grateful look towards her friend, she thanked him for looking after her little sister.

They'd now gotten past that forgotten part of Capitol, towards the more civilized one. If the Holo was correct, the traps would start around here. Around her, she could see everyone regrouping into their sub-squads. Captaincy was hers now.

"Alright, Jays," she snarled to them. "Weapons in hand. We're gonna help them fighters putting on a show."

* * *

**Katniss**

By the end of that first day, they had encountered at least seven different pods and lost two team members.

The first few pods were actually more troublesome than lethal. That beam of hot laser crisscrossing over an abandoned street, forcing everyone to crawl on their stomach through the street - with their weapons and all. Katniss's bows and arrows and riffle wasn't actually that bad, but the Gulls, with their tridents and axes and everything on top of their riffle, weren't clearly having the best times of their lives.

Then came the snare which caught on Ash's leg, lifting him upside down in the air. A single gunshot on the wire - courtesy of Gale, of all people - fixed it. The man fell right into Madge's arms, and everyone actually had a pretty good time laughing.

The Jabberjays which came afterwards was a bit of a joke, since some of the voices used this time were that of people in their squad. Looked like the thing hadn't been updated in a while.

Things started getting serious when they barely escaped the poisonous fog emanating from some walls, just to get hit straight away by rocks falling down the roof of abandoned buildings. Now, the rocks weren't recorded in the Holos at all. Looked like it was a new thing.

The next pod was where they lost their first squad member. It was labelled as "Tracker Jackers" on the Holos - by Plutarch, who was involved in creating the traps - but turned out to be a booby trap on the ground. Most of them escaped it, except Mitchell who had been last in line. Katniss didn't really see what was happening, but the fact that both Peeta and Johanna were both quiet afterwards told her that it was something unsavoury. They were now one Jay down.

Not an hour later, the second casualty occurred. One of the Leeg sisters - the younger one, the Gull. She'd lost her footing while walking on top of a wall, slipped, and activated yet another unrecorded trap. This time, Katniss saw it happening. The poor young woman curled on the ground, not making a sound, as sharp bolts rained on her, while her twin watched frozen from the balcony they were trying to climb to.

She found herself running to Johanna afterwards and hugging her sister, as Caroline and Annie - broken as they were, but having been there themselves - tended to the remaining Leeg.

That was the last pod of the day, for the sun had gone down and Boggs had decided it was time to call it a day. They set a camp in an abandoned apartment unit, and arranged their night rosters. Katniss found herself rostered with Wheaton for the four A.M shift. It would be the last shift before they had to get ready and continued their journey through the Capitol.

"Hello, sister-in-law," Wheaton greeted her, as she walked out of the room she'd been sleeping in to join him in the living room. "Been a while since we last talked."

To tell the truth, Katniss didn't usually conversed with Wheaton. They weren't enemies - Katniss could even say they were friends, at least - but they weren't extremely close as well. Katniss had never fully forgiven him for standing there watching when his mother beat Peeta up, back when they were little. Since Wheaton broke away from the abusive family and started making his own way in life, Katniss had become a bit closer to him, though they'd never really talked about anything important. She guessed she hadn't really trusted him yet.

"Yeah," she responded, deciding not to hold it against the man, now that they were at war and he was fighting with all he had. "How've you been since?"

"Alright, I guess," Wheaton answered with a smile. "Life's been crazy, but I've been coping."

And then, just then, Katniss thought she'd just seen a little bit of Peeta in his older brother. She'd never thought they were similar at all, past the hair and the eyes, but actually, there were things that they shared.

A bit like the things she shared with her sisters.

"Must be hard for you," Wheaton said, breaking the silence. "Sandwiched between The Capitol and the..."

His voice trailed off, as Katniss threw a glance over her shoulder, to the room where Boggs and the soldiers from Thirteen slept.

"... and everything else, I guess," Wheaton continued, mouthing a quiet 'thanks' in the end.

"Kind of," Katniss responded, a bit reluctant to share what she really felt. "Makes being sandwiched between a crazy older sister and a cheeky younger one feel like a breeze, if you know what I mean."

Wheaton laughed, before quickly covering his mouth as he realized everyone else was asleep.

"I do know what you mean," he said, holding out a palm upright. "High five to your fellow middle child."

They high-fived and chuckled together. Looked like they do have a common ground to talk about, after all.

Then Katniss realized something.

"I... I've never really told you this," she said, averting his gaze a bit. "I'm sorry that your family didn't make it."

"S'okay," Wheaton responded. From the corner of her eyes, Katniss could see him smiling sadly. "Now that I think about it, they weren't much, but they were what I had."

He paused, before continuing, "my only regret is that I didn't try harder to convince my older brother to leave with me."

Katniss could only stay silent, as she recalled Peeta's revelation that night a couple of months ago, as he laid there recovering in the hospital in Thirteen. His eldest brother was actually their shield. The person who'd done everything in his power to save Peeta and Wheaton from their mother's irrational wrath, and in so, sacrificing what he truly was in order to be the perfect son his mother was happy with.

"Hope he's free now," Katniss eventually said, not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah," Wheaton agreed. "Hope he's free."

Silence once again took over, as they both reminisced and thought of their lives.

"What do you think would happen after the rebellion?" Wheaton eventually asked, perhaps due to curiosity, perhaps because it was too painful to think of what was happening and what might happen.

"I don't know," Katniss answered. "Do you have any guess?"

"Kind of," Wheaton responded, looking outside the dark window. "Things would change. The way the country's run. The district system. The world as we know it."

"You have a vision," Katniss commented, as she recognized the determined yet dreamy look in Wheaton's face. "Good on you."

"I don't think I'm staying in Twelve," Wheaton responded somewhat randomly, looking lost in his own thoughts. "I'll most probably join the government ranks if they would let me. Or..."

He paused suddenly, and turned to Katniss sheepishly.

"Or?" Katniss pressed.

"Go back to Seven with Caroline."

Katniss's face must have looked funny or something, for Wheaton quickly added, "no, not like that. As friends."

"Friends?" Katniss asked, as she found herself smirking skeptically over Wheaton's claim.

"Yeah," Wheaton answered, raising an eyebrow. "Just because she's a girl who likes guys, and I'm a guy who likes girls, doesn't mean that we're going to go at it like you guys did."

This time, it was Wheaton who smirked, as Katniss found herself turning red. Wheaton knew. Who else hadn't known about...

Oh, well. To them, she was married. Naturally, everyone knew what she'd been doing with Peeta.

"Anyway," Wheaton ended the embarrassing moment, standing up and patting her on the shoulder, "take care of my brother for me. You're the one whom he needs."

To tell the truth, Katniss was anticipating that feeling to start sinking in. That fear that what Wheaton had just said to her were some goodbye words or last messages. But, no, it didn't. It didn't feel like that uneasy feeling she'd had when she waved her mother and baby sister goodbye. It didn't feel like those moments she found herself staring at the District Thirteen Soldiers in the truck this morning and getting a sinking feeling in her stomach.

Perhaps Wheaton wasn't gonna die.

She ended up spending the rest of her idle watch trying to focus on the good people had done in the past, just so that she didn't go crazy in her head thinking who was going to die and who wasn't.

* * *

_Day Three_

_Hawks alive: Boggs, Gale Hawthorne, Katniss Everdeen, Caroline Mason, Madge Undersee, Leeg1, two district volunteers._

_Gulls alive: Jackson, Finnick Odair, Ash Mason, Thom, Wheaton Mellark, Sven Lee, one other volunteer._

_Jays alive: Johanna Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Annie Cresta, Delly Cartwright, Homes, two district volunteers._

That first night, Boggs had contacted the Staffing Department at Thirteen to ask for two replacements, for they were to keep their number. And by the morning of the third day, they'd gotten both of their new members.

One was delivered near midday on their second day, by a rebel combat squad who'd just arrived from their transit in Two. Plucked from their own rank, apparently. A green-eyed girl, looking around Katniss's age, in a standard, non-bulletproof uniform. Annie went into a semi-shock when she arrived, and Katniss had never seen Finnick angrier as he came up to the girl and started a hissing argument with her. It was almost similar with the argument Ash had with Sven Lee when the boy volunteered to join their squad.

"Remember the 70th Games?" Johanna asked quietly, scooting closer to where she stood.

"Only parts which are in the recap video," Katniss admitted. "Is she...?"

"Male Four's sister," Johanna finished for her. "Annie's other cousin."

What was done was done, and they couldn't send the girl back to Thirteen, so she became one of them. Gale put a request for a new bulletproof uniform, to be delivered with the other soldier, and Ash had to step up as a temporary Captain for the Gulls, for Finnick was occupied with bringing Annie back.

That second day also marked the last day the film crew spent with them. Cressida and her crew bailed as soon as they all found a place to rest, with a 'good luck' and a 'goodbye'. Everyone sighed as they left, though some of them looked a bit more crestfallen than they should have. And Katniss herself had to admit that Cressida and the two cameramans had grown on her, too.

If there was a good thing this day brought, it was that the squad who'd brought in Annie's cousin did them a nice thing by sharing the new, updated map of the Capitol. Complete with the locations of two circles of barricades built as a last fortress by the Peacekeepers and the Capitolites, separating a circular area around Snow's Mansion from the outer regions of Capitol.

When Annie eventually came back from her shock the next morning, it was Delly who went to meltdown. Dropped on a parachute in a very risky delivery mission, in a bulletproof uniform - and with another set of it - was the only relative the girl had. Her younger brother, who was just about to turn sixteen. He had broken orders and decided not to join Haymitch and the rest of the Victors' and Guards' families for their escape.

"I need to fight," the boy said firmly, when Gale interrogated him. "I can't go and run away when you guys are fighting. I'm part of the Careers of District Twelve too."

Needless to say, they couldn't send him back either. Thus he became part of them as well, traipsing around the Capitol with the rest.

The pods got more and more sophisticated, as they went closer to the centre of the Capitol. There were real Tracker Jackers - thank District Thirteen science for the instant curing injections -, and other kinds of mutts: dogs, cats, other kind of animals. Things which came down crushing at them, vehicles which ran after them as if sensing where they went. Explosives and bombs here and there, chemicals and biological weapons dropped on them, damaging their uniforms.

They found themselves moving slower just to keep everyone alive as long as possible. At the end of that third day, though, they still lost some. Homes, in a rain of chemical spraying them as they passed under an arch. The other Leeg sister, together with one of their original volunteers, torn apart by some crazed out dog mutts. Another volunteer, crushed by a food delivery truck. And another one, blown up to the air in an explosion.

"I don't think we should really request more soldiers," Katniss overheard Gale discussing quietly with Boggs, as they entered their abode of the day. It was a rather fancy apartment, freshly abandoned for the area had just been evacuated that morning. They were four soldiers short of twenty four now. Take down four more, and they would only have enough for two sub-squads. "It's apparent we've handicapped ourselves with too many in the squad already."

She didn't quite get Boggs' reply, for Peeta had chosen that very moment to whisk her away for a private moment, but when they came back in, it was apparent that Gale had lost the argument. Boggs was on his communicator requesting four additional soldiers from Thirteen.

What happened next, though, was something which certainly had been coming for a while, but still painful when it eventually did.

"Squad," Gale announced, standing right in the middle of their circle of soldiers. "We're going to separate the Jays from the rest of the squad tomorrow morning. We're going to meet at the outer barricade in midday, a week from today."

He paused for a bit, as he caught Johanna's sad yet determined eyes looking at him.

"Soldier Johanna Everdeen would lead the mission. We are going to seize some of Capitol's resources and use those to help their citizens see what kind of government they have."

There was a bit of volunteers' reassignment announcement afterwards, but Katniss didn't really hear it. It was the war, really, and she shouldn't be afraid of loss and separation. But still, what had been impending was now real. From tomorrow on, both her sister and her boy would no longer run alongside her.

She inhaled deeply and used Peeta as a support, as she slowly threw a look around the room. Thom and Delly. Finnick and Annie. Johanna and Gale. Herself and Peeta.

Everyone would have to say goodbye tonight.

Things happened afterwards, and people shuffled into rooms. She wasn't really there, though. She was somewhere, deep in her own brain. This feeling. She'd had it once before, as she saw Johanna on that launch plate, in that big screen showing the 71st Hunger Games.

She wondered if this was how her mother had felt every day, sending her father down to the mines not knowing whether he would come back out.

Her assigned sleeping spot tonight was the bed in one of the rooms. She laid there squeezed between her big sister and her boy; her sister's man laying with them on her sister's other side. In all objectiveness, it was awkward, but unlike those past times, she didn't care. None of them cared, actually. There was just no time to say goodbye to two loved ones.

Everyone let them sleep that night. She didn't know who was on watch roster, but clearly, none of the four of them was. At one point, she did fall asleep, only to jolt up awake a few short hours later, for she thought she'd just seen her sister and her boy torn to sheds by some machine guns, their blood flooding the street and seeping into the gutters.

She cried upon looking at their sleeping faces.

The morning couldn't come quick enough. Before she knew, she was standing in the middle of a circle in the living room, pinning her Mockingjay pin onto Peeta's uniform.

"This took me out of the arena alive, twice," she told him, loud enough for everyone else to hear along. "Hope it takes you out of here alive too."

He answered her with a kiss on the lips, sweet and chaste, under the watchful, sad eyes of everyone else.

At the corner of the room, huddled Finnick and Annie. He looked vulnerable. As vulnerable as he was, those days in Thirteen when he didn't have her. They were whispering something on each other. And something was really off. The whole time, his hand didn't leave her stomach.

"Dear God," Katniss heard Peeta whispering behind her. "She's..."

She looked over her shoulder and nodded, for it was too painful to hear the rest.

"Guys," she heard Johanna calling from the door, "time to go."

And that was goodbye.

One by one, the members of the Jays left the room. Started from the newest one, Sven Lee, who'd just been reassigned. Then, the volunteer girl from Three, one of the last ones alive. Then Delly and Annie. Then Peeta, with that one last look over his shoulder at her.

And then, Johanna, her big sister Johanna, walked out. With that one last glance at Katniss, as she spun around.

A glance which said 'I love you' better than any combinations of words would ever do.

* * *

_Day Four_

_Hawks alive: Boggs, Gale Hawthorne, Katniss Everdeen, Caroline Mason, Madge Undersee, One district volunteer, Annie Cresta's cousin._

Gulls alive: Jackson, Finnick Odair, Ash Mason, Thom, Wheaton Mellark, Delly Cartwright's little brother.

Jays alive: Johanna Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Annie Cresta, Delly Cartwright, Girl volunteer from Three, Sven Lee.

**Johanna**

Their team looked downright dysfunctional. Right from the fifteen year old who'd been stupid enough to risk his head volunteering, to two former prisoners-of-war: one pregnant and not so mentally stable; the other one limping - even just slightly - and also traumatized.

The only two people who was perhaps totally fit for combat was the volunteer girl from Three, and Delly Cartwright whose only problem was Thom who was now away with the Hawks.

Actually, after she thought about it, she was, too, fit for combat. Her only problem was that Gale and Katniss were both away with the Hawks. And that she didn't quite know how the Department of Communication and Information would look like, by the time they got there. They could be shielding it as they would a fortress, for they needed it to keep controlling what their citizens see. And to guard all those secret camera recordings stored there, which no ordinary citizen was meant to see.

"Mutts ahead," she quietly told them, as she glanced at her holo. They were now two blocks away from the building, traversing through a small, burnt-looking alley. "Watch out."

Everyone pulled out their weapons and rushed through the stretch, only to realize nothing had happened later.

"Crap," Johanna muttered, upon another look at the holo. Of course. The mutts were underground. This part was supposed to be fire, but looked like someone triggered the pod already. "They're underground, guys. Sorry for making you run for nothing."

"Captain," their youngest member Sven called from his place in the middle of the rank, "why do you think they would be underground?"

Now, Johanna must admit, that was a good question.

"There must be some kind of passageway down there," Peeta chimed in, frowning hard. "Something that they think we might use."

And that moment, they looked at each other.

"Do you think we can try that?" she asked Peeta, just for an opinion.

"Sure thing," Peeta answered. He took a look around, and pointed to a covered manhole on the ground. "Looks like the entrance."

"What are we going to do with the mutts, though?" Delly asked next to them. "I don't think we should go inside unless we have a canary. It'll be hard to escape."

"Actually," Sven chimed in, reaching for something in one of his holster's pockets. "I have an idea."

They all stood back as he lifted the cover on one side - perhaps half an inch or so - and dropped the thing into it. He dropped the cover and ran off to join them right after. Not until ten seconds later, they all shook with a small explosion under the ground.

"Biological hand grenade," Sven explained, looking proud yet a bit sheepish as they all looked at him. "It explodes, then release this lethal gas which would stay in the air for five minutes or so."

They waited in one of the smaller side alleys for perhaps way longer than five minutes, before coming back and descending. The underground passage looked empty, at start. As they got closer to where they headed to, though, they started seeing bodies on the ground. Humans.

"No," she heard Sven whispering remorsefully behind her. "Shit."

"They're not humans," the girl from Three, who'd been quiet all along, commented. "Look at their heads. Carefully."

And then, just then, one of them started stirring. As he - it - got up, Johanna could see what her comrade meant. They weren't humans. They were human-sized lizard mutts.

"RUN!" she commanded them, as she tossed her ax - her Beetee-crafted, special ax - on the one mutt which got up. There was this horrible sound, then silence. And then her ax came back, so she assumed the thing died. More, though, were creeping towards them. She could feel the things coming.

"Manhole ahead!" she shouted, as she saw a circular light at the end of the tunnel. "Prepare to climb out!"

She dived straight out when she saw it, not knowing where it lead but knowing the mutts wouldn't make it. Annie followed behind her. Then Sven. Then the girl from Three. Then Peeta. And Delly. Everyone made it.

Just before a mutt's head poked out of it, sharp teeth and all. The thing was too big around the shoulders, and wasn't intelligent enough to figure out it could easily fold its shoulders and slide out. It was definitely stuck.

"Oh, well," she said, as she waved her ax - sure and casual - to behead it. It wasn't necessary, as there was no way the thing could harm them now, but she thought she'd just give its friends a nice warning. "Not bad, I guess."

Peeta squeezed her shoulder lightly, begging her to move along. And so she did, for there was no point standing there anyway. From the corner of her eyes, though, she could see Sven Lee throwing something into the tunnel and slammed the hinged metal cover back onto the hole.

"That's a mini-bomb," he explained, as Johanna spun around to glare at him. "Figure out we might as well finish them all."

"You could have won The Hunger Games, you know," she commented dryly, looking at the boy. "If only you'd been reaped."

"You're not the first person to say that," Sven commented back, shrugging, as he blended back into the rank. "I don't want to, though."

Johanna decided not to engage in further exchange with the boy, for they'd entered the foreign territory now. She didn't know where on earth they were, to tell the truth. Her holo did say they were in the right building - by some really fortunate coincidence. Looked like the odds were in their favour today.

Her hand flew, subconsciously, to where her pendant should have been underneath the shirt. Of course, it wasn't there. She'd given it to Gale a few hours prior, before they departed from the mission. Her and Katniss, they'd had the same idea of giving their tokens to their men.

Gale. Katniss.

She refused to think more, for the more she thought about it, the more fear took her over.

The only way from there was up, so they took the ladders and emerged from yet another manhole, this one on the ground. From the looks of it, they'd ended up in the basement carpark of the Department of Communication building. It was full of cars and waste; looked like they hadn't been able to take their waste out for days.

"Charming," she mumbled, pulling up the scarf she had tied around her neck to cover her nose. The thing really stank. Behind her, she could see Annie doing the same, looking a bit green. Poor, pregnant Annie was clearly having the hardest time of all.

She hadn't really gotten over the nausea, when some loud bangs echoed behind her. Spinning around and drawing her own handgun, she saw Peeta and the girl from Three firing up at the ceiling - at the rim of the ceiling, to be exact. She looked up just in time for one of the bullets hitting a glass dome at a corner. Of course. Surveillance cameras.

"Lay it down, djangos," she told them hastily. "Either they've seen us, or they're blind. RUN!"

And on that, they started running. Which was a good decision, judging the loud explosions behind them, and the small fragments thrown their way. This place was laden with bombs.

There was something which looked like a fire door at the other end of the carpark, and that was where Johanna led her squad to. It was, of course, locked, and she found herself utilizing her gun to shot at the latch. Straight away, she realized what she'd done. It was no longer a fire door now, and no one was safe. But there was no time now. They had to keep running.

"RUN!" she found herself shouting, "KEEP RUNNING!"

She didn't know how many floors they'd run up through, until they saw that secondary fire door with no locks. It screamed survival, so she pushed it open and scrambled into the corridor. A loud stampeding noise and a blaring fire alarm greeted her, instantly. The building was in chaos.

"Run!" a man with green hair, who'd dashed past the door, shouted at them. "We are..."

His eyes started widening in fear, as he realized who were actually there.

"Relax, comrade," Peeta said calmly behind Johanna. Looking over her shoulder, she could see her brother-in-law - her brother - holding out his gun at the man, steady and calculating. "Show us where all the archives are stored, and we'll take you out of this building alive."

* * *

**Katniss**

"Hey, Little E."

"Hey."

She looked up, sheepishly, from the knot she'd been fashioning from a tasseled curtain tie she'd snatched from their current abode: a fancy penthouse in an abandoned block with no electricity. Finnick, the same Finnick who'd first taught her how to knot to forget all her troubles, was now crouching over her, inspecting the knots.

"You'd gotten much better since the basket in the Quell," he said, grinning.

"Thanks," she responded, for she didn't know what else to say. She didn't have much to say. She hadn't been doing much, apart from running away from traps and shooting the odd mutts since Peeta and Johanna and Annie and the others broke away the day before. Oh, and losing one more comrade. The last original district volunteer still with them was gone, thrown high up in the air by an explosion.

Finnick plopped down next to her and playfully ruffled her short mess of a hair, tangled and tousled from all the running and rolling they'd done the past few days. And to her surprise, she let him be. In some ways, he was just like Johanna. And she missed her sister too much to let this pass.

"Gale and Boggs had just called me for a meeting," he said, once they were settled. "We're gonna split again tomorrow."

She nodded, for she had nothing to say. This was coming anyway.

They sat in silence for several long minutes, until Finnick broke down and started chuckling.

"I've never believed what Jo-Jo said about you, before I met you myself," he admitted, looking down to earth just this once.

"What did she say about me?" Katniss asked, tilting her head to see him.

"Lots of things about a tough-as thirteen year old who shot like a pro," he answered, chuckling again as he reminisced. "I thought she was just being subjective, cause that's what big sisters do, right?"

Katniss chuckled alongside him, as a stifling emotion rose in her chest. As a kid, she'd wanted her sister to be more proud of her. She'd yearned for a praise, instead of the constant veiled encouragements. She wished she'd known Johanna had been proud of her all along. She could have been a better sister. She could have been...

"Hey guys!"

Thom's excited greetings from the bedroom door cut her thoughts off.

"Gale's managed to tap the TV on the emergency lights! They're on TV now! The Jays are on TV!"

She jumped up, for a split second thinking that Johanna and Peeta and the others had been caught. Then her logic kicked in. Thom looked happy, so obviously whatever was on television was good news.

And sure, it was good news. Everyone had already circled the television enthusiastically when they made it to the front foyer, where it was currently at. They propped down next to Ash, who had a content, happy looking Madge on his lap. Finnick immediately perked up, for the face on the television was Annie's. Her make-up looked a bit thick and Capitol-ish, but still, it was Annie. Her eyes stared straight at them, lucid and fiery. She was answering someone - Delly, judging the voice - 's questions about who one of Snow's right-hand man actually was.

_"On the surface, he seemed dedicated to the country," _Annie's voice echoed from the speakers_, "But as Finnick Odair discovered, from one of his many mistresses, he was nothing but a sociopath and a lunatic. And a disturbing pervert who likes young girls."_

The screen blinked, and something else showed. A blurry, oddly-angled recording of a hotel room. Perhaps one from those bugging cameras Haymitch and Johanna always obsessed paranoidly about. It started with a footage of someone entering the room, in a skintight dress. A dark-haired young girl, who looked oddly familiar. Another person entered the scene then. A man, looking unhealthy and downright perverse. And... and then...

Katniss clenched her fists and closed her eyes, as she realized it was a recording from one of Johanna's times as Snow's prostitute.

"Oh well, Big Everdeen," she heard Ash commenting next to him. "Great job airing the laundry."

The recording went for a while, and had seemingly included Caroline at one point, for the girl gasped and Ash let out a strangled cry. Then, a loud clicking sound echoed and Annie's voice took back over. Katniss opened her eyes, as she heard Annie continuing her story.

_"And as some male Victors discovered, he seemed partial to boys too."_

Ash and Finnick smiled tensely on Katniss's sides. Katniss closed her eyes before the next recording started. Judging Madge's whimpers, this one was a recording of Ash. Whatever happened there, Katniss didn't know. And didn't want to know.

_"Thank you, Annie," _Delly's voice eventually started again, after a clicking noise_. "Are there anything else you want to say?"_

"_Yes_," Annie responded. "_He is responsible for ordering these following murders._"

Another clicking noise, and then several screams and gunshot noises and strangled yelps. Looked like the Jays had found all the files of the disgusting man's wrongdoings, and was now working trying to turn the citizens of Capitol against its own government.

"Emergency battery's running out," Gale said, as a hum started emanating from the television. "I guess that's all for today."

Slowly, Katniss opened her eyes, and started looking around the room. Everyone had this mixture of amusement, pride, and sadness in their faces. The Jays were really doing their job.

"We're going to part ways tomorrow," Gale continued. He looked strained, as if trying to push away so many emotions from his head. He'd seemingly kept his eyes open throughout the whole recording, including that part where they had Johanna's old recording on. "Soldiers Jackson and Odair will take the Gulls towards the first barricade above the ground, through the peacekeeper posts. The Hawks are going to take the underground route straight to the first barricade."

They all nodded in acknowledgement, somber and solemn. Couples and friends started grouping together, getting ready for their night rest. Katniss found herself next to Gale, who sat there staring out of the window. The past few days had aged his eyes and shoulders, though not the rest of him. He looked at her and offered a tiny grin as she laid on the floor next to him, using her arms as pillow.

"Surviving?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she answered. "Surviving."

She must have been too tired, for she fell asleep immediately, only waking up for her watch duty at around midnight. Her guard partner was Madge, and together, they sat in front of the dining room window.

"You and Ash, uh?" she asked her friend, after a few minutes of their comfortable silence.

"Yep," Madge answered, sounding happier than ever - and somewhat sadder than ever. "Me and Ash."

"Congrats," Katniss said, looking at her friend. "I'm happy for you both."

Madge smiled. No, grinned. Widely.

Katniss chuckled, for she didn't think she would ever see Madge like that before.

"You're in love," she told her friend. "You're really in love."

"Hopelessly," Madge agreed, still with her wide grin. "Now we can talk love, for I've been there."

Katniss laughed, for it was all too funny, really. Madge laughed alongside her, though they had to immediately stopped when Soldier Jackson poked her head out of one of the rooms and glared annoyedly at them. Oh, yes. They were Soldier on night watch duty, not schoolgirls.

"Think of how crazy things are," Madge whispered, once Jackson was back in the room. "Two years ago, we were just schoolgirls at Twelve. And tomorrow, we're about to go out shooting Peacekeepers."

"Yeah," Katniss agreed. "Sorry I dragged you into this mess."

"Don't you be," Madge responded, smiling. "If not for all of these, I would still be unhappy. You guys saved me, Katniss. You brought me to life."

She stopped and blushed a little, before continuing, "and you brought me Ash."

"Still can't believe he's my second cousin, and you're with him now," Katniss admitted, shaking her head a bit. "It's funny everyone here is related in some ways."

Madge was quiet for a while.

"Katniss," she said afterwards, "there's something I need to confess now."

Katniss looked at her friend.

"I've known for several years now that your family's not entirely Twelve," Madge began, upon sensing her permission. "They kept genetics records on every child born in the districts after Snow started his term, for the Games' purposes. I had a peek once at My Dad's copy when we were thirteen, after Johanna got reaped. Your files were marked red. Yours, Johanna's, Prim's. Apparently you were significantly different from the rest of the district. They did say you girls were most probably part Seven."

Katniss sat there in silence, taking in her friend's confession.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she decided to ask afterwards, keeping herself from running away from the matter. If she - or Madge - was to die within the next few days, then she didn't want any hard feelings and unresolved problems. She didn't want any regret between them.

"I don't know, really," Madge admitted, looking apologetically at her. "You must've known I'm not that good in talking and confrontations. I was tempted to tell you once, though. When Caroline got reaped for the 72nd Games. I... I kind of suspected you guys are related."

"Gray eyes," Katniss commented, thinking for a bit. "And the fact that her brother and my sister have the same brown eyes."

"That," Madge said, smiling. "And her name."

"Caroline?" Katniss asked. "It's not a District Twelve name, as far as I can tell. Or, at least, not a Seam name."

"It is a District Twelve name," Madge disagreed, a somewhat triumphant smile on her face. "When Panem was still North America, Twelve was these two states called Carolina. North Carolina and South Carolina."

"What else do you know about Old days' history?" Katniss asked, smiling as she realized there were so many things she didn't actually know about Madge, that she was yet to discover in her friend.

"I can't tell you all," Madge answered, chuckling a bit. "We'll be up 'till the morning. After the war, maybe?"

"Alright, then," Katniss agreed, looking at her friend. "After the war."

(And the day did come, after the war. In the living room of the Capitol apartment they'd shared, Madge would tell Katniss all she knew about the Old Days' history - and all her feelings, fear, and thoughts.)

* * *

Their two sub-squads parted ways early the next morning. Unlike the previous parting between them and the Jays, though, this one was minimally emotional. Apart from Ash and Madge, everyone was sufficiently composed. It was like all of them had accepted fate, had embraced what the future had for them.

"See you all at the first barricade," Finnick said, confident as usual, as the Hawks began their descend underground through a dry moat at the side of a park.

"See you there," Gale responded, smiling at Finnick - and Ash, who stood behind him - as if they were old friends.

* * *

_Day Seven_

_Hawks alive: Boggs, Gale Hawthorne, Katniss Everdeen, Caroline Mason, Madge Undersee, Annie Cresta's cousin._

_Gulls alive: Jackson, Finnick Odair, Ash Mason, Thom, Wheaton Mellark, Delly Cartwright's little brother._

_Jays alive: Johanna Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Annie Cresta, Delly Cartwright, Sven Lee._

**Johanna**

"What are we airing today?" Delly asked, as they got themselves ready for their next broadcast.

Spreaded in front of them now were the results of their last few loots. Several handheld computers and cameras, collected from various departments and people's houses. Fake financial reports hacked from the Finance Department's system; evidence of massive corruption within The Capitol. Confidential reports from Internal Affairs and Defense, also hacked off the network, about those people 'missing' from the districts throughout the year and their fates. Surveillance recording from the jails, which were now empty thanks to Peeta's kindness and Sven's smart perception - and the Capitol's smart strategy of abandoning their petty criminals and retreating their Peacekeepers to important buildings.

There were only five of them from the original squad now, plus some criminals who were so grateful to be freed and were willing to stand with them in this war. They'd lost the girl volunteer from Three in a tussle with a group of Peacekeepers the previous day. So much for volunteering for this dangerous mission, really. Luck was with them, in that Peeta had paid a close attention to how she'd set up the whole hacking and transmissioning system. They were relying on memories now, and on those two prisoners who'd bits and pieces of this hacking crap.

As she looked around at her team - bandages and cuts and scabs and all - Johanna wondered why on earth they were even alive. This damned thing was essentially a gigantic Games with too many players in it. They were clearly the lucky ones, counting down their days and when their luck would run out.

"I'm suggesting the jail footage," Peeta spoke, after a few minutes of thinking. "It shows how unforgiving Capitol is. Actually, we can also add in the stuff about the missing people there. They... they need to know The Capitol - Snow - had little interest of anyone apart from themselves."

"Sounds great, brother," Johanna agreed, for it did, for all reasons, sound great. "We will..."

The radio she'd been ignoring the whole morning started buzzing again. For a thing which had been silent forever - including in the past two days, when the Jays were practically on their own - the thing was surely persistent. It surely wasn't Gale, or Finnick, or even Boggs or Jackson. They'd agreed that they would not radio each other. No one needed to know the other - or others - had died, really.

"You should really answer it, Johanna," Annie told her, concerned. "It could be Haymitch."

"Haymitch's not supposed to contact me," Johanna responded, snapping. "Unless he can't contact Gale, and can't contact Finnick. Which means they're dead. Would you rather know?"

"Johanna," Peeta warned kindly, giving her a quick hug. "Relax. Annie has a point. And just because they're not answering their radios, doesn't mean they're dead. They might just be busy."

The radio buzzed again. Grudgingly, Johanna reached for it and snapped at it.

"Soldier Johanna Everdeen speaking."

"This is Squad 404," the voice across spoke. "We have a replacement soldier for you."

"Drop at my coordinate," Johanna snapped back. Three days later, and they'd just sent what Boggs had requested before the squad split. She didn't know if this soldier would be any use of them at this stage, now that they'd cornered The Capitol and its citizens into a compact circle around Snow's Mansion. All they had to do was to head to that first barricade Peacekeepers had built in an attempt to keep the rebels out of the area they still had.

"Arriving in five minutes."

Oh, well. At least this replacement was already at Capitol, with Squad 404 - or whatever number they was. Their chance of dying was perhaps the same, whichever Squad they were with.

Their current hiding place was a little building in the middle of an abandoned business precinct. They'd all stalked in here in their plain Capitol clothing yesterday night, all their loot results hidden neatly in designer bags. They'd had their own coal-based electricity generator, and was overall a good hiding place. It even had a little peephole on the door, just for easy street surveying. And that was what Johanna spend doing for the next five minutes, until she saw a bunch of soldiers - in their Thirteen uniform - approaching.

"Here?" Peeta asked quietly behind her.

"Yeah," she answered. He surely knew how to read her, now. Oh well, she guessed he was her brother-in-law, not some stranger, so it was pretty alright.

Her radio buzzed again.

"Why are they buzzing?" she grumbled to herself, as she took a peek out of the hole again. They could see them all, still. Except that, all but one of them was now walking away. Looked like drop-off duty didn't involve waiting for the dropped parcel to actually be picked up, after all.

"Everdeen," she answered her radio, too lazy to use the full form.

"Soldier Hawthorne had been dropped at your coordinate," the voice answered. "We're reporting back for our duty now."

"Soldier Hawthorne?" she asked them, half-screaming. "What is he doing here? He's got his own Squad, for warfare's sake!"

"That's the wrong Soldier Hawthorne you're talking about, Soldier. We've just dropped the other one."

And suddenly, she realized who was waiting out of the door for her.

She yanked the door open and flew out, straight to a pale, frightened, thirteen year old Rory Hawthorne. Gale's brother, and her sister Primrose's close friend.

**to be continued...**

* * *

Thanks for reading and making it here guys. I promise the next chapters would be less massive than this one.

I'll roll out the next update on weekend (Saturday). It'll include the second part of the Battle of Capitol (which is pretty long in my version; I imagine they'd moved really slowly and carefully here) and a third perspective from a canon character we all know. Till then, enjoy the rest of your week!


	28. Chapter 29: Burning

**AN: **Hello! It's me again here, with the chapter where President Snow died ;).

I'd like to thank all of you my readers, and to convey my special thanks to my reviewers jc52185, nothing2000, De-BardatBoston, Norbert's Mom, and Ellie82. Thanks for the love and support. You all mean a lot to me.

This chapter is another massive one (slightly shorter than the previous one, but still considerably massive). It's told from all three Everdeen sisters' perspectives. Here we'll have a glimpse of what was inside Prim's heart and thoughts, and watch the defining moments of the rebellion. Hope you enjoy it!

**Disclaimer:** all are Suzanne Collins's, except my original characters. I'm just borrowing.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty Nine: Bu****rning**

**Primrose**

Squad 404 - the one who'd gotten the honourable duty of taking her and her two best friends to Capitol - dropped her right in front of a dead-looking building, which had this ridiculous picture made of colourful little hoses on its sign.

"Your Captain in charge is Finnick Odair, Soldier Everdeen," the Soldier who'd been watching - babysitting - her said. "Wish you all the best."

She gave him a curt nod. If it was all up to her emotions, she would just ignore him. But her conscience told her that things weren't his fault, and thus she decided to be nice. There was no harm in it, after all.

"May the odds always be in your favour, Prim," Rory Hawthorne said glumly next to her. Four days after their little runaways' party got busted - betrayed, to be exact - and he still had this look of shock on his face. She wasn't going to blame him, for, she too, was still shocked as. She wished he'd been a little more aggressive, though. The whole time, he'd been so passive. Perhaps overthinking what to do and what to say, like what he'd always been doing the whole time she'd known him.

"Thanks," she said to him. "May it always be in your favour too."

She turned to her other side, to her other friend. They'd only been friends for a couple of months now, but already, Penelope Spinner had known more about her than anyone else ever did. She was perhaps the only good thing the rebellion had brought Prim so far. If not for this whole crazy fiasco, she would never meet Penelope - Penny. Prim was from Twelve, Penny was from Eight. They'd been initially forced together, by Prim's sister Johanna's request. At first, Penny was a wreck. Prim didn't blame her for that. Penny lost her two little sisters in a bombing. Even though Prim didn't have little sisters, the things her two older sisters had done just to keep her safe was enough an illustration for her of how one would feel towards a younger sister. Then, as Penny healed, they started bonding. And realizing they had more in common than they initially thought.

For example, they were both on fire. Penny, openly. And Prim, secretly. But still, they were both on fire. And that was why they were both handcuffed, until a few minutes ago. They had both tried to attack the squad members and run off to fight on their own, just so that the Victors could just do their mission in peace. Obviously it ended even worse than Rory's pathetic attempt on diplomacy and negotiation, and at the end, they were still being delivered to the Victors' Squad.

"Stay alive, Prim," Penny said to her, a hand on her shoulder. "I believe in you."

"You too," Prim responded, squeezing her friend's hand with her own. "Stay alive."

Squad 404's Captain threw them a look, and she knew that was it. She turned on her heels and started walking, closer towards the building. Hand on her knife's handle, just in case. The streets were empty - apparently, this was now Rebel's Territory -, but her Career Training taught her to always be cautious. Damn it. Johanna would definitely be dead proud of her if she saw it now.

She heard Squad 404 - and Rory and Penny - leaving, behind her. She didn't turn away; no point in doing so now. The battle was in front of her, not behind her. Finnick Odair - or whomever was actually in there - would get to her soon.

The door flew open around thirty seconds later, revealing the man himself. He had cuts all over his arms and on his face, which made him look more human, though Prim had to admit he was still handsome.

Before she could say anything, she was pulled inside and dragged down a flight of stairs.

"Ash!" she heard Finnick hollering. "Ash! It's really _Baby_ Everdeen!"

"It's Primrose," she shouted, rolling her eyes at the name he called her with. "And I can shoot a rifle, so I'm not a baby. Are Jo and Kat here?"

"Yeah, yeah," Ash - her second cousin Ash - responded, sarcastic like he was. "If you're not a baby, don't whinge like one. And no, your sisters aren't here. You're stuck with us until we meet them again at the barricade."

She saw him two seconds later, sitting on some kind of stage in the underground room she was dragged to. Some other familiar faces were there. Thom. Wheaton, Peeta's brother. Danny Cartwright, Delly's brother. They all looked worse for wear. There was also an unfamiliar woman, writhing on the floor. Blood leaked from her stomach. She was wounded.

"Prim," Thom called her from his perch next to a pole in the middle of the stage. "You know how to heal, right?"

"Yup," she answered, as she crouched next to the woman to check on her. That question - or reminder, really - wasn't really necessary. It was in her spirit to help the wounded Soldier. She grew up watching her mother tending to people and her sisters standing up for the wronged - even if in retrospect, it was her mother who needed healing, and her sisters who'd been wronged. She knew how to be selfless, and how to put others first. She was well-trained.

The woman turned out to be a lost cause. It had gone too far.

"How long has she been like this?" Prim found herself asking.

"Ran into that trap early this morning," Finnick explained, plopping down next to her. "We've had to revive her once."

"Odair," the woman on the floor started moaning. "Just let me go. Don't be a fool."

Prim looked sideways at Finnick and placed a hand on his forearm. Even the woman herself had seen she had no hope.

"Alright," Finnick said, his voice straining. "Thanks, Jackson."

With that, he ripped the sleeve of his uniform on the upper arm, and pulled out a purple pill.

"Wait," the woman said, pulling something out of her shirt. A holo, Prim realized. She'd seen Squad 404's leader pulling it out several times before, as they navigated through the mostly conquered alleyways of Capitol. "I'll reprogram this for the girl."

"Still not trusting me, eh?" Ash commented, chuckling.

"Yes, Mason," Jackson responded, though she looked slightly amused. "You think too much for my liking."

The room laughed somberly, and the woman smiled.

"Here you go," she said, her bloody hands handing Prim the holo once she finished reprogramming. "It should answer to you now."

Prim nodded, knowing that it would help, as Finnick slipped the pill, steady yet broken, into the wounded soldier's mouth.

"Goodbye," the woman whispered. "Good luck, kids."

With that, she swallowed the pill, and was gone. Giving Prim a taste of watching your comrade die.

Wheaton jumped down the stage and strode towards them.

"I'll put her next door," he told them. "Might help us focusing, I think."

"Nah," Finnick responded, clapping him slightly on the back. "Thanks, Big Mellark, but we need to keep moving."

He stopped and looked around, before continuing, "this place isn't suitable for children."

Everyone else in the room laughed, except Prim. Looked like there was something she didn't really realize there.

"Little Cousin," Ash told her, still perching on the stage. "We've just taken you into a Strip Club, though not by intention. We'd better get you out of here before your sisters or Hawthorne lash out at us."

Before she could ask further, though, she'd been ushered back up the stairs and out to the open, into the gloomy winter morning. Danny Cartwright stood by her, and behind them, she could hear the four others whispering to each other. Looked like they were divided between letting her run away and taking her to Snow's Mansion with them.

"Screw this," she heard her cousin Ash snapping, eventually. "I'd call the shots, since you're just all lame. I can think of ten good uses of her, for fuck's sake. And if things get ugly, I'm willing to step up and shield her. Cousin for cousin. Let's just take her."

"Johanna and Katniss would really hate you if she dies," Thom objectively commented, sounding tired and concerned. "The whole district can vouch how much they love that kid."

"That kid has potential," Finnick commented. "I've mentored enough kids to figure out who can fight and who can't. She'll try hard not to die, from what I can see. It's not about her dying. It's about letting her going to war. It's about protecting her innocence."

"It's kind of gone, Finn," Ash responded warily. "The kid's seen both her sisters killing on the television. Hell, she even survived a bombing. She knows death like the back of her eyelids."

"Can't I have a say in my fate?" Prim finally intervened, for she couldn't take it anymore.

"Go on," Finnick relented, his face softening. Prim smirked - in her heart, of course - for she'd finally found these boys' achilles' heel. Finnick Odair had a soft spot for her, somehow.

"I've been spending my whole life watching Johanna and Katniss protecting me," she started her tirade, mentally composing herself. "If I hadn't existed, I don't think any of them would be in the games. Jo was just trying to feed me. And Kat was just trying to protect me. I don't think I'll be able to forgive myself for running away, if anything happens to them or Peeta or Gale or any of you guys. It's time I learn to face my problems."

"Nice try, Kid," Ash chided her warily. "That speech's nice, but very irrelevant. You just really wanna fight, don't you?"

Busted. Her cousin was as good in reading people as her eldest sister Johanna was.

Ash turned to Finnick, and said, "let her be."

And that was how her fate was decided, by a bunch of young men who didn't know what to do with her. Didn't matter, for they were nice boys, and Johanna and Katniss had trusted them. There was no reason for Prim not to trust them.

She ran and jumped alongside them, as they made their way towards the City Circle - where those ridiculous yet glorious tributes' parades took place. They let her lead them with her holo at one stage - a role which she took with pride and dedication - and together they dodged some laser beams and meat grinders and funny-looking mutts. She didn't shoot at people, or stab them that day. Thom and Wheaton did place some explosives on Peacekeeper posts and the government buildings they walked past, but they weren't there to see it exploding. Luck was still in her favour today.

As they retreated to their abode for the night - yet another dark underground place Ash and Finnick dubbed a 'nightclub' -, she'd gotten quite a few battle scars to prove she'd been at war. Everyone else was worse off, in one way or another, and she found herself cleaning up their wounds with a bottle of alcohol Ash dug up from a cabinet. She couldn't clean up her own wounds, though, and at the end of the day it was Ash who cleaned them up, as she clawed onto Finnick's arm to relieve the stinging pain.

"You're one tough girl, Baby E," Finnick told her afterwards, wiping the tears from her face just like her sisters used to do when they were much younger. "We'll all get through this together."

"Together," she repeated him, beaming, as Ash rolled their eyes and smiled next to them.

They assigned her a night-watch shift just like the rest of them, and she woke up well before her turn, at around three in the morning. Her partner for the night was Wheaton Mellark, Peeta's older brother she'd never really talked to. They spent their time gazing at the reflections of their candlelights and night torches on that funny ball on the ceiling with a collage of mirrors on it - Ash literally called it a mirrorball - and eat, together, a packet of salted nuts found among the bottles of drinks Finnick didn't even allow her to touch.

"So," Wheaton began, looking at her. "To recap what was happening, one of the prep team members who were supposed to escape with you fell in love with this high-ranking Soldier guy and spilled it all off. You guys got busted. They took you and your Ma off, and forced the rest to leave. But Rory and your other friend Penny wouldn't leave your side, so Coin and her friends took them off too. What happened afterwards?"

Prim sighed, in her head. She'd had to recite this tale to Finnick and Ash just before she went to bed, and now, Wheaton wanted to hear it as well.

"Well," she answered, finally deciding to be her nice self. "They kept us together in a smelly jail cell deep down in Thirteen somewhere for two days or so. Then, Penny, Rory, and I were taken to Command and told we were going to be sent to Capitol. They gave us new uniforms and some weapons of our choices, shaved Rory's head and cut off my and Penny's braids, and sent us off in a Hovercraft. Squad 404 took us from Two to here. And that was it."

"Do you know where Rory and Penny are being sent to?" Wheaton dug in.

Prim shook her head.

"They can both be with Jo, they can both be with Gale, or one each. We weren't told where we were being assigned."

Wheaton looked at her in silence for a couple of seconds, then ruffled her hair. It annoyed her, for that meant he was viewing her like a baby, just like the rest of the team, but she missed her mother and sisters too much she wanted to enjoy the affection. At the end, her nice side won again, and she sat there as he ruffled her uneven, short hair.

"You're so brave, Prim," he told her afterwards. "I wish I could have been more like you."

"You're brave now," Prim rationalized. She didn't see the point in regretting the past. "That's what's important."

He ruffled her hair again and gave her another pack of peanuts, and they spent the rest of their watch shift talking random things they'd missed from home.

That was the last piece of peace she had, really. When her cousin Ash shook her awake the next morning, the final round of the war had already started, and they were preparing to fight.

The Primrose Everdeen she knew and loved - albeit secretly - died that day, as she threw a detonated holo to a rank of Peacekeepers guarding the makeshift barricade to the part of Capitol they still hold control of.

* * *

**Katniss**

As she crouched behind the flowerbed, looking at the makeshift barricade separating their target and them, Katniss found herself thinking of what unravelled yesterday, right before her eyes.

_She had sensed something was amiss, as they got a buzz from another squad that morning regarding their replacement member. Boggs' request for four replacement members had been officially denied, shortly after they split from Finnick and the others. With the rebellion now full on, there had been a shortage of soldiers and people in the right age bracket who could be recruited as extra soldiers. They were told they had to make do with what they had, even if there was only one of them left._

_Five of them had remained. Gale. Katniss. Caroline. Madge. Annie's cousin from Four, Maria. They'd lost Boggs deep under the streets of the Capitol, as a trap impaled him. He lived just long enough to reprogam his holo for Katniss, and to tell them a message to not ever go back. It was something they'd known, actually, but hearing it from Soldier Boggs, of all people, added an extra meaning to it. They weren't meant to trust Alma Coin, at all._

_From the beginning._

_As soon as they pulled Penelope into the building, the girl had told them, calm yet concerned, that Rory and Prim were too in the Capitol. Prim had been dropped with Finnick's squad, and Rory with Johanna's. They were all armed and things, and were briefed by Coin herself. Looked like the woman was still alive and kicking._

_...which meant, not only their plan to evacuate their families had failed. Haymitch's plan to take Coin down had too failed._

_Katniss didn't know much about the details of the Coin-assassination plan - it remained Haymitch and Gale's secret - but the fact that Gale seemed to have crumbled a bit beneath told her that they were in serious trouble._

_"What are we doing now?" she asked Gale, who was pacing up and down the room. They'd been spending two hours of sitting quietly in the apartment when he wrote and drafted. And attempted several futile calls to Finnick and Johanna, with whom he had made a pact not to call each other before they split their squad._

_"I..."_

_Gale paused, resting his head on the heel of his palm for a moment._

_"I don't know," he finally admitted, exhaling loudly and frustratedly. "Everything's botched. Everything's bungled. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."_

_"Gale," Katniss reminded him, thinking of that day before the Quarter Quell reaping. "Focus. There's no second chances in the battlefield."_

_He glared at her for a bit, but then, a look of realization crossed his face, and he laughed humourlessly._

_"Those are your lines, by the way," Katniss added, feeling cheeky. Before Peeta and the Games and the Quell, she wouldn't have dreamt of it, but being among her boy and her new friends had loosened her up a bit._

_"I know," Gale said warily. "Could you be more obvious?"_

_"That's Jo's line," Katniss responded, chuckling for a bit. Gale, being Gale, wouldn't admit it, but everything Johanna was had started blending into him._

_"Yeah, yeah," Gale waved her off. "Back on the topic. What to do. What do you think?"_

_"We should stick with the plan," Madge, who'd been sitting quietly staring outside the window, chimed in. "At least until we get to the Mansion and find the others. We need to find them."_

_"Madge's right," Katniss agreed, after a couple of seconds of thinking. "We need to regroup with the others. Let's go."_

_They slipped back into the underground tunnels minutes later, continuing their journey. Walking on and on, until a quick peek above confirmed they were close enough to the barricades Capitol had built to separate a small circle around Snow's Mansion from the rest of the rebel-infested city._

The apartment building behind Katniss was where they'd stayed last night. Close to the City Circle, to Snow's Mansion. She could see it in the distance from the window, surrounded by a second barricade and what looked like a sea of Capitolites spending their nights in the streets. They had been successful in wreaking havoc and throwing the Capitol into disorder.

Crouching next to her was her partner of the day, Penelope - Penny. Caroline and Annie's cousin Maria squeezed themselves at the small alley across them, while Gale and Madge hid in the back of an abandoned truck nearby. They were waiting for Finnick and his Gulls to arrive. This day, this place, was what they'd arranged for before. Unless something bad happened to all of them, they should be appearing soon.

"That's her!" Penny whispered. "They're here!"

And then, right then, Katniss saw them. Finnick. Ash. Thom. Wheaton. Delly's brother Danny. Her sister Prim - with short hair, but, still Prim. Looking worse for wear, but still charging forward. Quick and swift.

She drew in a deep breath and pushed everything out of her head, as she aimed and started firing at the barricade.

* * *

**Johanna**

When that section of the first barricade fell - undoubtedly to the Hawks and the Gulls of the Victors' squad - Johanna and her squad were a couple of blocks away from it.

Things went into chaos when Rory arrived with the bad news that the plans in Thirteen were busted, and that Prim and that girl Penny was also fighting in the Capitol with the other two squads. After what seemed like an hour of tantrums, Johanna found herself throwing her radio down a toilet bowl. There was no way she would let that evil Alma Coin track them down now. It was them against the Capitol and against Thirteen's rule now. They were on their own.

They'd been hacking all along, collecting more and more information to air. They were yet to see if it really turned Capitolites against its government, but judging the fire burning sporadically behind the barricade, looked like some of them had gotten frustrated anyway. They were definitely at the brink of mass hysteria - if weren't in there already. Some of them might have been on their way to assassinate Snow themselves now. Johanna's squad had found this secret list - somewhere in Snow's personal filer they managed to hack into - containing all Snow's enemies and how they'd met their ends, and aired them out in their newest propos. Whomever still trusted the president, after everything, must have been crazy.

"Captain," Sven Lee called behind her. "Let's steal that car."

The 'car' in question was a catering delivery truck laying abandoned in a nearby alleyway. A quick scan around showed no particular person hanging around, and thus seemed like it would work.

"Wait," Rory chimed in, just before they were about to move. "It might be laced with bombs, you don't know."

"Good point," Peeta agreed. "Let's check first."

They sent Rory and Sven - the boys - to check on it, and they waved off with all-clear. With that, they made their way to the truck and piled in. Sven, Rory, and a heavily-concealed Peeta at the front seat. Delly, Johanna, and Annie hidden in the back, among empty crates and other things. From then on, whatever was happening was Peeta and Sven's to decide. Johanna found herself laying flat on the floor, clutching at the carpet at the end of the day. Sven Lee definitely hadn't fully learned how to drive. Or, if he did, he was absolutely a bad, erratic, unsafe driver.

Some point later, they came to an unexpected halt. An exchange outside. They might have been busted.

"Delly," Johanna hissed, beckoning at the other girl. "Get ready to fire."

Delly pulled out her gun without questioning. From the corner of her eye, she saw Annie doing the same. Pregnant, delicate Annie. Whoever opened the back of their truck would better be a good guy.

Some seconds later, someone knocked on the back door.

"Come on, peeps," it was Peeta, sounding calm and relieved. "It's just some old friends."

Annie lurched to open the door, but Johanna pushed her back - as gently as she could - behind them and reached for the door herself. The last thing she needed to do was to get both Finnick's wife and kid killed. That would be bad.

The person who stood there behind, when the door opened fully, though, was Finnick Odair himself.

"Finn!"

With her exclamation, Annie lunged forward and jumped straight into Finnick's arms. And for the first time in a few days, Johanna laughed. She didn't know when she started crying, but judging the fact that her face felt wet, she was definitely crying. Everything was fine. People were alive.

Wait. Did she just think people were alive? What about Katniss? What about Gale? What about... Prim?

"Jo! Delly!"

The face appearing behind Finnick, though, negated one third of her concern. Prim was alive. Dirty and wide eyed, with a few random cuts and bruises on her face and neck, but, still alive.

Johanna jumped out, and took her baby sister in her arms in a bone-crushing hug. The young girl let out some hisses of pain, but she couldn't care less. Her baby sister was here. Prim had defeated Coin and her plans.

Finnick tapped her gently on the shoulder and pointed at the rest of her squad, who were standing nearby. Now that she was paying a close attention to where they were, they were actually at yet another small, fully-evacuated alley. With activated pods, judging the mutt corpses on the ground.

"Alright, Jays," she turned to them, upon realizing what Finnick was getting her to do. "Let's just join these melee-happy guys and worry less about our necks."

They all let out a laugh. Finnick and Prim - and Thom, who'd been standing all along - led them to what looked like the back door of an abandoned gym. There, casually sitting on the floor, were Ash, Wheaton, and Delly's brother Danny, who'd all perked up upon seeing them. The poor Penny girl from Eight sat nearby, looking in her element as she polished her rifle quietly, next to that cousin of Annie's from Four - Maria or something like that. Next to them, laid Caroline, who was humming softly to herself. Looked like the Hawks - or some of them - were here too.

"Commander, Katniss, and Madge are somewhere out there," the Penny girl explained, upon glancing at Johanna and the newcomers. "They're stalking Snow's right-hand-man or something. He's apparently on his way out of Capitol."

"That's what your propo's doing, Big E.," Ash commented with something which looked like half an eyeroll, half a sneer. "Your boy. Your sister. My girl. Between them, I doubt there would be anything left to bury from the man."

Peeta let out a groan.

"Why did you just let them go?" he asked them, looking angry and agonized. "Don't they know they're risking their necks for nothing?"

"You wanna get shot through the eye?" Ash asked back, lifting an eyebrow. "Little E., Big Hawthorne, and my girl Margaret with bows and arrows. I'd better stay out of the way."

Apparently, the Capitolites weren't the only ones with mass, war-induced hysteria.

Johanna spent the next hour or so sitting at the corner with her baby sister Prim, cuddling as she tried easing the younger girl's guilt over the barricade ambush.

"You'll be Okay," she found herself telling her baby sister. "This is the war, Brat. Everyone does that. Doesn't make you right or saintly, but makes you human."

The fact that it made her baby sister cry told her that she'd better leave this kind of thing to Katniss, so she just sealed her lips and continued running her fingers through Prim's now short blonde locks afterwards.

Gale, Katniss, and Madge came back a few hours later. They looked somewhat hollow, and somewhat accomplished. Looked like the bastard's really dead now.

"He's dead," Gale announced, his voice venomous and distant. "The bastard's dead."

He left it at that, and sank to the floor at a faraway corner, ignoring the rest of the room. Looked like the reality had finally sunk in.

"Well done," she heard Ash telling Madge, as the girl sat down next to him. Madge turned away and started sobbing. Looked like the reality had started sinking in too, for the girl.

"Joey. Prim."

Johanna extended her other arm to embrace her middle sister, as Katniss sank on her other side. "Kitty."

"He's dead," Katniss told her, looking intently at her. "He's dead."

"Yeah, and that's great," Johanna responded, looking back at her sister. "Does it fix anything, though? Apart from making our job with trials easier later?"

Katniss didn't answer. Looked like the reality had sunk in too, for her.

"We're all going mad," Peeta said quietly, from his perch next to the door. "We need to regroup and refocus. If we keep going like this, we'll be no different from Snow and Coin in no time. You want to be like them? Any of you?"

No one answered.

"An eye for an eye..."

"... makes the world goes blind," the Penny girl continued Peeta's sentence, calm and firm. "My mother'd always said that."

"They're right," Annie agreed, looking up at them. "It doesn't fix anything."

No one else commented. Either they were still in shock, or they didn't believe it.

"Do we even need all of these?" Peeta asked fierily, looking around at them. "Do we even need to ambush anything we see? What do we want to do at first? Gale? Are we all here to blow off the entire Capitol?"

"To put Snow in trial and behind the firing squad," Gale finally responded, reluctantly, without looking at Peeta or any of them. "To get them to surrender."

"They're cornered as now!" Peeta exclaimed - no, _spat out_. Never had Johanna seen him this angry before. She'd never even thought the boy had it in him to be that fiery. "Won't be long before they surrender. We should all just rest and let it be."

"Not happening, Boy," Ash commented dryly from his perch. "Snow? Surrendering to us Victors? Tell me that and I'll tell you the sun rises in the West."

"He's right," Finnick agreed. "As much as I hate all this bloodshed, I know we can't just simply expect him to surrender. He'll just find another way to survive. Had he been in the Games, he would have won it."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Peeta asked them. His voice was calmer, and his breath slowed down. Looked like the statement had hit him in the head. "The Capitol's in chaos. Snow won't surrender. And we have Coin and her ways, on top of that. What do we do?"

"Refocus," Sven - _young Sven Lee_ - barged in from the corner of the room. He looked around at all of them, as they stared at him. "What else?"

The Kids said it best, after all.

* * *

Refocusing took them a whole day or so, and involved playing silly hand games and doing random things like dancing to Ash and Katniss's singing, plus random noises made by Madge and Caroline and Prim as a background. It was pointless at first, but as time passed by and they all calmed down, they'd started seeing the ridiculosity of things. It was only when the lasts of them to wind down - Gale and Katniss - joined them in a round of laughter over the situation that they started their real refocusing efforts.

(And yes, they were all just going insane, but who weren't?)

Strategies were rearranged. Teams reshuffled. Roles reassigned. Plans were made to bypass the second barricade without having to fall it. And by the next day, they'd all been rested and refocused.

"Ready?" Katniss quietly asked Johanna, as they crouched together preparing the inventory for their final mission.

"Not quite, but this would do," Johanna answered, in all her honesty, as she looked at the little sister who'd become her comrade.

* * *

**Primrose**

_Finnick and Annie would surely make really good parents._

As she huddled with Penny Spinner - and Rory Hawthorne and Sven Lee - at the corner of this attic, she looked at her two older comrades, who were themselves huddling and talking. The two District Four Victors had done their job really well, keeping them Kids safe.

"Finnick," Prim heard Danny Cartwright calling from the other corner of the room - where he'd been busy talking in hisses with Annie's cousin Maria Cresta. "Any signal yet?"

"Not yet," Finnick answered, with another quick glance out of the small, dark window. "They should be fine, though. It looks pretty tame down there."

Danny let out a sigh, and turned back to Maria. Prim rolled her eyes. They were in the middle of a war, hiding at a weird attic offered by an even weirder tiger-like friend, and Danny still had the chance to try flirting with a girl.

Well, not that he was alone, anyway. Penny and Rory had too, been, talking. This one, she'd seen coming, for they'd been exchanging looks for weeks. Well, more exactly, Rory had been stealing looks at Penny, who was still too confused and shattered after what happened in her district.

Oh, well. Now that she'd thought about that, all boys did that. And at least Rory only took a few weeks to actually muster the courage, unlike Gale and Peeta who'd practically followed Prim's sisters around with their eyes their whole childhoods (and with his stupid teasing, in Gale's case), and still didn't make a peep until they were thrown together by coincidences when they were teenagers.

_Wait. Weren't Rory and Penny thrown together by coincidence, too? Into the war?_

She decided to let it go, for it was too hard. Perhaps she should just go sleep, like Annie suggested a while ago. Apparently they would have a long, long day tomorrow.

And thus, she got up and made her way to the only unoccupied corner of this attic.

"Hey, Prim."

There went the chance to sleep.

"Hey Sven," she greeted him back, scooting over a bit as he plopped down next to her. "How are you doing?"

"Pretty terrible," Sven answered, laughing a little. "Things just keep jumbling around randomly in my head. I guess I'm going crazy."

"Same," Prim responded, chuckling - no, giggling - a bit. "Things are certainly going crazy."

"Yeah," Sven reiterated. "The war. Everything. I don't know if I'll turn out alright, once we're out of here."

"Nah, you won't," Prim commented. "Now that I've thought about it, we're just yet another tributes in another Hunger Games. Sven, Victors are crazy. Well, most of them are. Jo is certainly crazy, and Kat most probably is. Maybe all of them are crazy."

"Hey!" Finnick shouted jokingly from the other end of the room. "We heard that!"

"But you're crazy!" Prim shouted back playfully. "No, not you, Annie. Just Finnick! Okay, I take it back. Most Victors are crazy."

Annie laughed, and Finnick mock-pouted, before he too joined in laughter. Looked like they were all going crazy - if not already.

Prim moved her hand subconsciously, between the mockingjay pin on her lapel and the necklace around her neck. How on earth her sisters' district tokens went to her, it was a rather funny story. Basically her sisters gave the things to their husbands, then both her brothers-in-law gave their tokens to her. She was considering giving one of these to a particular someone, but at the end she couldn't choose which one she would keep, so she decided to just keep them both. Sven would do alright without any tokens, she guessed.

"Missing your sisters, huh?" Sven asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope," Prim answered, just to be stubborn. In all honesty, she missed her sisters. And her Ma. Geez, she didn't even know whether her Ma was alive. When she was taken for combat, they'd too taken her Ma out of prison. Coin did mention they wouldn't kill her Ma, as long as she and her sisters cooperate, but she would be an idiot to ever trust Coin again.

Her eyes welled up, and she blinked, just so that she didn't have to think about it again.

"What's with the tears?" Sven asked her, nudging her lightly. "You're not pulling a Johanna, aren't you?"

She laughed, all her troubles forgotten.

"I'm pulling a Primrose, thanks," she told him, arms folded on her chest in a playful gesture.

"I can see that you are," he responded, winking at her.

She let him hold her hand, beneath the fur blanket she was hiding under. As hypocritical as it was, with her frowning at Danny and Maria, and Rory and Penny, she was, too, flirting. With Sven Lee, two years older and from a different district.

* * *

**Katniss**

There was this big screen at the City Circle, similar to the one they'd always had in Tributes' parades. Every few hours, Snow would appear on it, calling for peace and calm and control. All the other times, though, it would display all their faces. Her. Peeta. Johanna. Finnick. Annie. Ash. Caroline. Gale. Even old ones of Madge and Wheaton, which were apparently from the Final Eight family and friends' interview during the 74th Games. All with completely random 'facts' which looked more like bullshit.

"Can't believe they take those seriously," she heard Peeta saying to Caroline, as they made their quiet descend down to the wine cellars of an all-looted, abandoned restaurant. They were to spend their night there.

"Neither do I," Caroline responded, sounding amused at herself. "Such fools, they are."

"Oh," Ash commented, sneering. "So that was all your Jabberjaying when in jail."

"Yeah," Peeta admitted, chuckling a bit. "No idea why they took it all seriously."

"Because laser bra-s are common rebel weapons," Johanna barged in sarcastically. "And Finnick Odair is a bastard child of Ocean God Poseidon, sent to the world to save all of us from moral degradation."

Snorts echoed throughout, as they all restrained their laughters. The Capitol had gone completely insane, out of fear and confusion.

"I wonder if we'd accidentally blown up Snow's Secretary of Communication," Thom said afterwards, as they settled in the damp cellar. "Everything they announced haven't made sense for the past few days."

"That, or the coward ran away and his junior staff had to step up," Johanna responded. "Loyalty is not big in Capitol."

"More like the second, really," Ash commented. "That guy's a fucking coward and loser. He can't even aim his piss straight."

"Alright, Victors," Gale said out loud, above their inappropriate laughters. "Time to rest. Tomorrow's a big day."

"A big, big day," Katniss found herself chiming in, feeling sad yet hopeful as she remembered Effie. The information Johanna and the Jays hacked off the network stated that the Escort was still alive, and was in close observation at Snow's Mansion. If they did everything right, they would be able to save Effie.

Peeta pulled her into a hug and planted a kiss on the top of her head. Her boy really knew how to make things better.

"Your night watch's in three hours," Gale told them, as he walked past them on his way around the room. "Go catch some sleep now, if you can."

They settled down, though it was impossible for Katniss to fall asleep. Her heart thundered in her chest, somehow. Tomorrow, they were really ousting Snow.

She stayed awake until it was time for her and Peeta to do their night watch. And afterwards, as her boy laid in an uneasy sleep next to her. Across the room, she could hear four people whispering. Madge. Delly. Thom. Wheaton. All reminiscing about Twelve.

She tuned their voices out, for she realized she missed her home like nothing else.

She eventually fell asleep, for a bit, before waking up to a sudden tug in her heart. As she jolted awake, she spotted her sister retching quietly at a corner, trying not to wake everyone else up.

"It's nothing," Johanna told her as she came over to help, inhaling deeply and taking a big gulp of water from a bottle. "Just nerves, I guess."

She paused and threw a look across the room, before turning back to Katniss. "Don't tell the others. Not even Peeta."

"Not even Gale?" Katniss asked.

"Definitely not him," Johanna answered. "I'm here to fight, not to distract the Commander from his duties."

And so she kept quiet about Johanna's sickness, though she found herself walking behind her sister as they made their final march to the mansion later.

It wasn't really a march, actually, for they were in disguise and walking on their own. For all purposes, they looked just like another Capitolites desperate for food and shelter making their way to Snow's mansion. But underneath their coats of furs and leathers were their weapons, all secretly drawn - or ready to draw.

The gigantic screen in front of them was still flickering, again showing their faces and the lies Peeta and Caroline had fed Capitol with when in captive. No one around them bat an eye. Perhaps everyone was just frazzled. Perhaps they were truly unrecognizable, with the hats and dyed hair and Capitol make up and everything else. Either way, it was good. Things were working their way.

A loud crash echoed from behind them, followed by screams and a wave of stampede. The second barricade had, too, fallen. It would be a matter of time before the rebel soldiers fully took over the Capitol, cornering Snow into his mansion.

The stampede propelled her further forward, and she would have been glad, if she hadn't lost sight of Johanna and everyone else. But there was no time to look for them now. She had to keep moving. She couldn't just halt. She wouldn't survive.

Not five minutes later, another loud crash echoed. This time, it was somewhere ahead her, way closer to the City Circle. And the big screen died. No, not just died. Shattered. Starting from a bullet hole at the corner, then rippling throughout.

Their final mission had officially begun.

From then on, everything was a blur. She remembered running and dodging and crawling, and also climbing and jumping. The gate to Snow's mansion was already open when she ran in, bent and charred as if hit with an explosion. Her feet kicked something off. Fragment of a blasted holo, she realized, as she recognized the District Thirteen seal on it. Either Gale or Johanna had gotten here.

Somewhere in front of her, some people had dragged the gate wide open. Thom and Delly, she realized, as she ran past them. Behind them, several dead Peacekeepers laid strewn on the ground. Wheaton and Caroline stood among them, weapons drawn and mouths open shouting what sounded like battle cries. This was chaos. An organized, calculated chaos.

"ON THE TOP THERE!" someone shouted. "ON THE TOP THERE!"

She looked up ahead of her, and saw what the chaos was all about. Someone had climbed the flagpole and ripped the Panem flag in two, screaming wildly in the winter winds. Ash. Under the pole, another rebel stood with her rifle drawn. Madge. Delicate face in a fierce scream, blue eyes wide and hostile against the maddened crowd. Protecting her boy.

Things went absolutely wild behind her, so Katniss turned back to her path and continued running. The flag was captured anyway. She had to get to Snow. Now.

Sometime later - maybe a minute, maybe five minutes - she got to the foyer of the mansion. More dead Peacekeepers were strewn there, all with bullet holes and slashed throats. Her sister and Gale had definitely gotten here.

The door was wide open. People flew straight past her, right into the mansion. Chaos had crept in here too. She ran in, for she couldn't think of anything better to do.

"CATNIP!"

Gale. That was Gale calling her. Turning, she saw her best friend standing in front of a closed door, with a light handgun in his hands. Behind him was Peeta. White and shaken, with a bloodied knife in his hands. But still, alive and alert.

"Guys!" she screamed for them, scrambling and crashing straight to them. "Let's go find him!"

And finding Snow they went. Busting open the doors, remembering that secret map Plutarch showed them in Thirteen. The whole time, they could barely heard themselves. Capitolites and rebels alike, everyone was here. Screaming, stampeding, looting. It was warzone, on its best.

"That's the door!" she heard Gale screaming, as they ran towards the end of a corridor. "That's his office!"

A shot on the latch, and the door swung open. Revealing an empty room with closed windows.

"He was definitely here," Peeta told her, as an angry, swearing Gale started sweeping things off the table and out of the bookshelves. "We saw him here, up until we busted through that last door."

He held out his hand, revealing a small device with a screen, which now displayed a footage of the three of them in the room. They must have stolen it from one of the Peacekeepers downstairs.

"It hadn't been that long since the last door," Katniss analyzed, as Peeta frowned in thought and Gale began pulling out pictures and fixtures behind them. "There must be an escape here, somewhere."

"Yeah," Peeta agreed. He took a sweeping look around, before, all of a sudden, beaming.

"That corner there," he said, pointing at a corner with a single display cabinet on it. "The camera can't see it."

Someone busted through the room's door. Katniss drew her bow, preparing for the Peacekeepers' ambush. But no. It wasn't the Peacekeepers. It was the rest of their team.

Delly. Thom. Wheaton. Caroline. Madge. Ash.

"The madness's dying down," Thom reported to them, as they all walked to where Katniss and Peeta were. "Everyone's leaving."

"That, or they died," Ash commented, sneering. "Or someone told them something."

"Fuck."

That was Gale. Everyone looked at him, as he busted open the big window on the side, sending the winter wind into the room.

"Dive out fast," he instructed them. "We might've been trapped. Let's go find Finnick, Annie, and the kids."

And he was right. They were still halfway between the mansion and the back gate they were heading to, when something exploded, and a fireball rippled through the mansion.

"Fuck," Peeta muttered next to her. "There might be people in there."

There might be people in there.

A chill ran down Katniss's spine, as she realized there was someone missing from their team. Glancing at Peeta, Gale, Ash, and Caroline, she knew that they'd also realized what she'd just realized.

"_Johanna_," she muttered, turning to the rest of the group. "Has any of you seen her?"

* * *

**Primrose**

"That's him."

She got up on her knees, just so that she could peer beyond the wall. They were all now hiding in and around this single guard post outside Snow's Mansion's backdoor, crouched down to the ground so that no one could see them. The guarding Peacekeepers... well, she didn't want to think about those guys, now that they're dead. She should just focus on the task in hand.

"He's definitely going here."

Everyone - including Annie, who was apparently pregnant - scrambled to their positions; rifles drawn and grenades in hand. The president had an entourage of some Peacekeepers, and they knew they had to shoot. Prim drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes. She need not think of anything now. She just had to think of what she was going to do with Snow and his entourage. Now. The future was irrelevant. She wanted to live. She didn't want to die here. She didn't want everyone to die here.

"On three," Finnick called, behind her. "One, two..."

She didn't hear the next count, for shots starts ringing in her ear. Hell, she didn't even register whether she shot or not. Judging the shaking of her arms afterwards, she most probably did. But she clearly wasn't paying attention. She just shot and shot.

"Well," she heard one of the boys - perhaps Danny, perhaps Rory, she couldn't really tell with her hazy brain - saying, "they look pretty dead."

She felt someone getting up behind her. Most probably whomever had just spoken.

"Don't," Finnick warned, somewhere around her. "Wait for a minute."

A minute passed. Then, another one. Then, they saw some twitching. One of the Peacekeepers was just playing dead.

Time for another round of spraying. And then another one, as a car started appearing out of nowhere. When a stampede occurred, she thought it was time for another huge one, until she started seeing greys. The rebels were here.

"He's breathing!" one of them, a medic, who'd run up to Snow, hollered. "Get him to the hospital."

She stood up, out of curiosity, but a firm arm on her shoulder kept her down. Sven.

"Finnick said we should stay out of it," he reminded her. "We..."

A bang from somewhere, and some shouting. Behind Prim, Finnick and the boys started swearing, as if something bad had just happened.

"Don't," Sven again restrained her, as she was about to stand up. "Snow's just gotten his head blown up."

More commotion, and all the other rebels left them. One turned around and gave them the three-finger salute. Finnick and the others responded, so Prim copied them and respond. For the sake of the world, she didn't know what had just happened.

"Okay," Finnick eventually said, looking lighter yet somewhat remorseful, "we might all come out now."

Everyone else crept out, but Prim. Somehow, she just couldn't move her legs. She didn't stay down there for long, though. Before she could ask anyone to help, Sven had pulled her up on her legs.

"It's safe, Prim," he told her, his voice light like usual though quivering a bit. "War's over. At least for now."

"PRIM!"

The voice from behind the gate startled her. Turning around, she saw her middle sister Katniss, running wildly ahead of Peeta and Gale and the others.

"KATNISS!"

Their bodies crashed just outside the gate, and nothing else mattered. Behind Katniss, Prim could see the mansion burning; flames licking up to the sky. Sven was right. The war was truly over. Snow's Mansion was no more.

"Let's move along, people," Ash - Prim's cousin Ash - called from behind Katniss. "We still have another Everdeen girl to find."

Another Everdeen girl to find.

_... Johanna._

For the first time since they set off for the streets this morning, Prim knew that she was definitely _scared_.

**to be continued...**

* * *

... my final cliffy for the story (sobs).

Thanks for making it here everyone. I'll see you with the next chapter - the last one before pre-epilogue - sometime during the weekend, most likely on Sunday.

Till then, have a good weekend :).


	29. Chapter 30: Burned

**AN: **Hello everyone. Thanks so much for reading and being with me, up until this point. Welcoming my new follower BuddysLilSis. Thanks to Tyia and aJmRoses for favouriting this story, and many many thanks to my reviewers De-BardatBoston, jc52185, Norbert's Mom, Ellie82, and nothing2000. You all mean a lot to me.

Without much further rambling, here's the last chapter of the story. The one where the fighting end, and the rebels won. Hope you'll enjoy it :).

**Disclaimer: **THG trilogy, its characters, and its settings belong to Suzanne Collins. All I own is my Original Characters.

* * *

**Chapter Thirty: Burned**

**Johanna**

When the world spun around her head and her legs gave way, she thought that was the end of her.

She'd been feeling unwell the whole morning, throwing up and just feeling lethargic in general. What a good timing, the morning of the peak point of their mission. Oh, well, Johanna's luck had never been good so far anyway. She shouldn't have been that surprised.

There was no way in the world she would ask Gale to delay the mission for her. Since he switched to Warlord Mode, that first day of this mission, they'd been more out of sync than ever. He was totally sucked into the world of warfare and executing mission, so far it was impossible to even catch his eyes. When their squads were reunited after the split, in that abandoned gym near the first barricade, what she was reunited with was basically a stranger. An angry, ruthless, calculating stranger, who would apparently listen to no one but Peeta Mellark. And thus, she decided to just keep out of his way. She could deal with it all later, after they'd forced Snow into surrendering.

She didn't really know what she was doing, the whole time they marched towards the Mansion with the crowd. It was like she was there, but not there, too. In retrospect, she should have retreated. But at that point, it just wasn't possible. She was going to Snow's place. She was going to capture the man who'd made her life hell for the past few years, and put a sole mark on his head for good measure. He couldn't keep being the one stepping on her head. She wanted to be the one stepping on his head this time.

She made it past the already blasted gate, and halfway through the huge front yard, before she could no longer remember what happened. The last thing she registered, before the world went blank, was sinking onto the ground, and being shaken violently by someone who sounded vaguely familiar.

When she finally opened her eyes again, she was on a bed - on a stretcher, to be exact - and a Rebel Medic in white was hovering over her. Before she could ask what the hell happened, someone had grabbed her hand. A thin, emaciated woman, with dull blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. At first, she thought it was one of the Merchants from home. Then the woman started speaking, and, suddenly, she recognized who it was.

"Johanna Dear! I thought you were gonna die. Oh! What a day!"

"Effie," she found herself croaking, as tears - of happiness - started falling down her face. "Effie!"

They shared a bone-crushing hug, and laughed together, as they realized they'd somewhat been reversed. Effie was now make-up free, in plain clothing, and in general, just natural. Johanna had enough on her face to defeat Capitol's most make-up obsessed women, and a ridiculous looking fur coat over a skin-tight catsuit.

"What on earth happened to me?" she demanded her escort, feeling like a lost child for a while as Effie held her hand again.

"A bunch of barbaric, unpleasant people broke into the Mansion," Effie started her tale, her Capitol accent still thick in her voice. "Should have been glad, really, for they'd freed me, but I just can't get over how wild and uneducated they were! Oh, Dear! They were just everywhere, and I had nowhere else to run! I had to jump out of a window, Dear Lord! My mother would've been upset. Anyway, I ended up at the front yard. There were people everywhere, Johanna Dear! How terrifying it was! But I couldn't see any other way out of the damned Mansion, thus I just went for the gate! I didn't want to be there anymore. That's when I stumbled upon you, Johanna Dear! On the frozen ground! I thought some barbaric had shot you!"

"Then?" Johanna asked, rolling her eyes a bit. Her Escort's tale was a bit thick to swallow, but she smiled nevertheless. Effie was safe. And speaking.

"I shouted for help, of course! And someone came and got us! Glad I did, my dear. The thing exploded afterwards! The Mansion!"

And suddenly, Johanna felt dizzy again.

"Effie," she hastily said, grasping on her Escort's hand. "Have you seen Katniss? Or Peeta? Or my other sister? Or any of those district kids you met during the Victory Tour?"

"No, My Dear," Effie answered. "Saw someone who looked just like that scoundrel from Seven Ash Mason, though - if only he'd had cared enough to get his skin tinted..."

"That's him, Effie," Johanna cut in, grabbing on Effie's forearm with her free hand. "Him and me, we're part of the rebel Victors. We were going to capture Snow for all his crimes, Effie. Katniss, Peeta, and I were about to get you out."

"Oh, My Dear," Effie commented, looking guilty for a bit. "I cried for days when I heard what That Bastard of a President did to you poor kids! I've never realized you weren't actually one for lovers! Oh my..."

"Stop it, Effie," Johanna cut her off, massaging her temple. "It's not important now. I need to go back and find the others. I need to know they hadn't all been blasted. My..."

Her voice caught, for she realized she didn't know what to call Gale anymore.

"... my husband's there, with Katniss and Peeta and the others."

"Oh Dear!" Effie exclaimed, her hands flying off to her mouth. Now that the make-up and the slight wariness was off, Johanna could see that Effie wasn't actually acting, most of the times. It was just how she was, being raised in Capitol and all. "It's... it's still burning now! I haven't heard of anyone making it out alive."

And with that, something snapped in Johanna.

She jumped off the bed, ignoring Effie's calls and the looks from the medics around her. Someone had stripped her off all her armoury, and she was unarmed now, but she didn't care. She ran and ran, through this makeshift hospital, out to the building's foyer. From where she stood, she could see Snow's Mansion burning, flames licking up high to the sky and smoke blowing.

Gale.

Peeta.

Ash.

Caroline.

Wheaton, Delly, Thom, and Madge Undersee.

Katniss. Her _Kitty_.

She didn't realize she was sinking, until she was fully on the ground. Arms caught her left and right, bringing her back to the building. She relented. She didn't put up a fight. She had nothing more in her now.

They were dead. And she should have been dead with them.

"That's her! That's Soldier Johanna Everdeen!"

The medics holding her stilled, as a man in grey uniform ran up to them. She just stared at him. Part of her wanted to scream, for he wasn't any of _them_, but she just couldn't. Her tongue was tied.

"Your squad's been looking for you, Soldier," the man told her, hands on her shoulders. "They'd been ransacking every makeshift hospital; every refugee centre. Hang in here, I'll go and get them!"

With that, he bounded back down the stairs, as if he'd just won the lottery. With a warmth she hadn't felt for a long time in her heart, Johanna realized that some people actually cared.

"Here, Soldier," one of the medics pushed a chair under her. "Have a seat."

She plopped down, feeling more worn out than ever, as the relief from the good news spreaded through her veins. Her squad was alive. At least, some people from her squad were alive. She hadn't lost everyone. She might not get to choose who lived and who didn't, but she would still have someone.

But she wanted to choose. She wanted to choose so badly. She wanted her sister Kitty. She wanted Gale. She wanted her brother Peeta. She wanted her friends Ash and Caroline. She wanted... she wanted everyone. Even Madge Undersee. All of them, they were now her family. She...

"JO!"

"JOEY!"

Two warm, living bodies crashing onto hers snapped her out of her thoughts. She knew them. Her Kitty. Her Primmy. Both her sisters.

She held them and cried. She didn't know why she cried, but she just cried. And they were, too, crying, onto her ridiculous coat and catsuit, so much patches of it were soaked. But she didn't care.

"Where were you?" Katniss asked her, looking up tearily. There was a little bit of accusation in her voice, but Johanna didn't blame her for that. If it was Katniss disappearing, she would have asked her sister the same.

"On the ground fainting," she answered, laughing a little bit at herself for it sounded really lame now. "Effie found me and brought me here."

"Effie?" Katniss asked, perking up. "She's alive? She's Okay?"

"Very much," Johanna answered. From the corner of her eyes, she could see the Escort running out; frail and limping but determined and excited. "Watch out. There's an Effie coming for you."

Seconds later, Effie's shrill, accented voice filled the foyer. Johanna watched and laughed, as Katniss jumped up and crushed the Escort in a hug as well, crying and laughing at the same time. They had been too stubborn to see it, really, but Effie was family. She'd been family since that first day of Katniss and Peeta's train journey to the Capitol, when she chided both Johanna and Katniss on the dining table for looking defeated.

"JO-JO! Oh God..."

Another warm, alive body - this one much bigger than the previous two - crashed on her. Finnick. The big brother she'd never had. He looked teary. And shattered. Behind him, stood Annie, crying and beaming at the same time. More people who cared about her, after all.

"The others," she whispered to Finnick, as Katniss spent her time laughing and crying and hugging with Effie, and Annie took Prim to the side and gave the younger girl a calming hug. "Where are they?"

Finnick looked around, and lowered his voice, before answering, "Thom and Delly took the kids off to a safe spot. Caroline's crumbling, so I told her to go with them. The rest are getting into position to assassinate Coin."

"What the fuck?" she hissed back at him, clawing at his arms. "Whose plan is that?"

"Ash figured out it would be for the best," Finnick explained, still in his low voice. "Him and Wheaton Mellark are leading the mission. Your brother-in-law and your husband are both going. And Margaret. Margaret's in post-battle daze, and Gale's totally blinded because he thought you died, and Peeta's only going because he felt responsible for the others - but the bottomline is, they're all going."

"Fools!" she hissed back at Finnick, staring fiercely at her friend. "We've gotta get those morons. Tell them to forget that idiotic idea. They'll all be in front of the firing squad by morning!"

Before he could react further, she'd jumped off her chair and dragged him out of the building and down the stairs. Behind them, people called their names. Annie, Prim, Katniss, and Effie. A look over her shoulder confirmed that Katniss was running after them, frantic and bewildered.

"Brainless!" she hollered at her sister. "Stay put where you are!"

"No!" Katniss hollered back at her. "Not without you!"

Johanna let out a moan of frustration.

"Stop being clingy!" she hollered again. "It's the war!"

"Jo-Jo," Finnick yelled in her ear, "Jo-Jo! Chill! You don't even know where you're going!"

Now, that was a point. She slowed down, and eventually came into a halt, panting. She felt her stomach lurching and her head spinning again, as soon as she stopped moving. Looked like whatever bug she'd caught had come back.

"Shit," she muttered, grabbing at Finnick just so that she didn't fall over. "Shit."

"You're in no shape to go there," Finnick told her sternly. He turned and looked at Katniss, who'd just reached them, wild-eyed and frantic.

"Take her back," he quietly told the younger girl, shifting Johanna's weight onto Katniss. "I'll go check on what's happening in Thirteen, and what's the plans."

And so, it got them there. Her younger sister dragged her, forcefully and mercilessly, back to the makeshift hospital; while her best friend scrambled for information out in the streets, and the five crazy morons went into an idiotic crusade. All while her head spun, and her stomach lurched.

"Get her back to a bed!" she heard Katniss roaring, once they were back in the goddamned building. "She can't be walking around!"

Some burly medic scooped her up into his arms, and she was carried back in. At this stage, her stomach was empty, but her body really needed to expel something, so badly that the little water she had and some bile came up all over the floor on the side of her makeshift bed. No one paid attention, of course. Everyone else in the room was moaning or crying - or even dying. Hell. She didn't know anymore. Her body was a wreck.

Someone kneeled at her side. Her baby sister Prim, holding a wet, cold towel.

"Did you hit your head?" the younger girl started questioning.

"Nah," Johanna answered, breathing a sigh of relief as Prim started wiping her face with the towel. "Maybe I did, but I couldn't remember."

"Most probably you did," Prim analyzed. "Though it might just be dehydration... but this isn't how you dehydrate, judging your Games..."

"Stop," she scolded her baby sister, feeling horrible for doing so but she couldn't help it. "Don't talk about the goddamned Games. Lord knows I have little mental resources left."

"Anyway, it's either the head thing or dehydration," Prim quickly recovered, standing up. "I'll get you put on a drip. Wait here."

Several minutes - or maybe an hour, really - passed as she laid there on her own, alone with her thoughts bar those few times the medics came to give her a drink of water. When someone finally came for her, though, it wasn't Prim. Or Katniss.

It was Haymitch. Her mentor Haymitch, who'd apparently been held in a cell in district Thirteen, as their secret plans got botched.

"Old Man," Johanna croaked, laughing a bit from happiness. "I thought you're locked up."

"Freed by some friends," Haymitch explained, looking somewhat distracted. "Flown here on a funny little 'craft with Blight."

"Great," Johanna responded. "Now, if your friends can help us with the situation in hand..."

"Doll," the older man cut in, kneeling where Prim had been before. "It's really over. Coin and Plutarch's hovercraft crashed halfway through to here. No one survived."

Now, that was good news. Johanna opened her mouth to laugh, only to shut it back up when she registered that somber, glum look on Haymitch's face.

"No," she gasped out, as she realized what might have happened. "She didn't take anyone hostage in there, did she?"

Haymitch looked away, before bowing his head and reaching for her hand.

"Doll," he finally said, turning slowly to her. "There was a hostage in that craft with them. It was your mother."

* * *

**Katniss**

There was this saying she heard once, "you don't know what you've got, till it's gone."

And she'd never thought, in a million years, that it would once apply for her Ma. For the woman who had abandoned them when their Pa passed away. For the woman who'd forced her and her older sister to be the breadwinners and the men of the house. For the woman whose only solution to problems was to cry over it. For the woman she never wanted herself to end up being.

Well, she was wrong.

She'd howled, loud and long, as Haymitch sat her down and told her what happened. Perhaps because Prim was, too, howling. Perhaps because Johanna was staring at them through a curtain of tears, curling up in fetal position on her makeshift bed. Perhaps because Peeta started tearing up behind her, perhaps because the look of guilt in Gale's face as he looked at them from across the bed. Or perhaps because young Sven Lee, who was there with them for some reason, closed his eyes and grimaced. She didn't really know.

Some rebel and district Thirteen medics had taken over this Capitol hospital. Haymitch checked them all in - the Victors, the Victor Guards, the kids who'd gotten pulled into the Victors' Squad - into it, that very night. Straight up to Mental Health, where they were put under strict observation and watched closely. It wasn't where all of them ended up, though. Well, most of them did. Except Peeta.

They'd all been too busy with the war, and the loss, and everything else, to realize that his left leg had completely been dead now. He most probably didn't realize it himself, running on adrenaline and concerns for others and his desires to do right. It was only when they stripped him off his uniform and put him into the gown that they noticed it had turned black halfway through his calf and down to his toes, and they had no other way to save it.

Katniss ended up sitting outside the operating theatre that night, with her sisters and Peeta's brother Wheaton, and the rest of the Careers of District Twelve as doctors amputated her boyfriend's leg.

"He'll be fine," Prim spoke up at one point, looking around at one of them. "He's Peeta."

Katniss found herself nodding, as the others smiled warily and nodded too.

They were all chased back up to Mental Health ward, soon after the operation was declared a success. Katniss was allowed down there in the recovery room, and later in Peeta's separate room in the Bone Ward - there was a proper name for it, but she'd never remembered -, though, for she was 'the wife'. Under the current hospital policies, she had even more authority on Peeta than Wheaton who was his last living relative. She ended up transferring her power to Haymitch, though, for she couldn't deal with it for the time being. She felt wrecked. And empty. She didn't even know what she was, anymore.

Haymitch took the role on, without questioning or hesitating. And from then on, all she had to do was healing. That, and watching everyone else healing.

* * *

The first few times she visited Peeta in his room, he was heavily sedated and asleep. As days went by, though, they'd weaned him off it, and he became more and more awake.

And finally, one day, he was awake enough to look at her, to take her hand, and to ask what they'd been asking each other all along.

"Stay with me?"

And she said, "always."

* * *

**Primrose**

The first week after the rebellion saga, and the death of her mother, her life was nothing but confusion.

Haymitch - her friend and her sisters' mentor - checked her in to Mental Health ward, together with the others. This pissed her off at first, for she was fine. She wasn't crazy, or anything.

Then the nightmares and flashbacks started coming, and slowly, she realized that she wasn't actually alright. She was, to some extent, crazy. Like her sisters. Like Peeta. Like all the Victors.

... and like everyone else Haymitch had checked in here.

Those first few days, she was mostly alone. Not because everyone else wasn't there. She just wanted to be alone, for some reason. People suddenly irritated her, for they kept glaring at her accusingly. Sure, she had taken down some people, but it was the war! Who didn't?

She did confide to her Head Doctor about it. And, to her surprise, everything turned out to be just in her head. The man got her to vent out all her problems, to blabber out every single thing she was feeling. Everything, until her head was empty. It was then after the session she'd started seeing the world as normal again, seeing people just as people who'd been concerned about her and looking after her.

She visited her big sisters and Gale that night. She would go down to Peeta's room too, if they allowed her to, but unfortunately it was a strictly-Katniss zone at the moment. And thus, with Finnick's help, she wrote her brother-in-law a poem, and sent it down with her middle sister when Katniss headed for her daily visit.

Johanna and their cousin Ash wouldn't have the end of it when they found out, and Prim would spend the next few days beet-red with all their teasing, but eventually she learned to just ignore them. And to be a better cheesy poet, under Finnick Odair's guidance.

As days went by, Prim found herself visiting each and every person she knew, again and again.

First came Rory and Penny, who'd, as she discovered later, shared the same guilt that she had. They'd been affected more deeply than Prim, for Rory was the more sensitive soul and Penny had been in battle twice as of now. Rory spent each night wide awake, too afraid to sleep, and the doctors had put Penny in special treatment for she couldn't stop hearing voices. They were coping, though. And healing. And growing up, learning to find their place back in this new world.

She visited the other 'kids' of the squad next. Delly's brother Danny, and Annie's cousin Maria. They were coping with it better than Penny and Rory - and better than Prim, too. Perhaps because they were older and wiser, could be that because they were more thick-skinned too. The bottomline was, they were, too, alright, so Prim let it be it. After all, playing board games with these two was more fun than trying to analyze them like a Head Doctor.

Then, off to Finnick and Annie it was. With them, she could simply be a kid - they'd looked after her. Prim was the third person to know - after Finnick and Annie themselves - that the Odairs were having a boy. Annie laughed happily, and Finnick gave her that proud ruffle on the hair, as she read them the poem she'd written for the boy. At the end of it all, she knew she'd gained yet another big brother and big sister. And that her life was getting better and better.

Thom and Delly treated her roughly the same as the Odairs did, and she found herself enjoying their company too. Same as her cousin Ash - who was now glued on the hips with Katniss's friend Madge, and her other cousin Caroline, who was 'just friends' with Peeta's brother Wheaton but was also seemingly in love with the man. Even Caroline's own brother Ash wholeheartedly agree, and helped Prim singing that song about "Skinny Love" or whatever it was called whenever they saw the two together. It didn't seem to work at the end, but they'd all made this bet of how many more years Caroline and Wheaton would last without doing anything.

And, last but not least. Took her a while to start visiting her crush Sven, too, but eventually she managed. He'd been nothing but happy to see her again, and she wished she'd visited earlier, for she later found out that Sven was, too, orphaned. His father had gone with one of the squads, and got shot down somewhere in Capitol. And unlike Prim, Sven had no big brothers or big sisters to take care of him. He was alone in the world.

"Sucks," she quietly told him, as they sat together holding hands in the hospital's gardens. She'd been hesitant to offer her hand at first, but he'd grabbed it the second he could, so she guessed he was too happy with the arrangement. "Where are you gonna live now?"

"Caroline's taking me in," Sven answered her, looking far in the distance. "She's gonna get a job with the Government and move to Two. Ash would've taken me in, but apparently his living arrangement would be funny with Margaret's job, so Caroline took me in instead."

"What's Madge gonna do?" Prim asked, interested. She'd never been too close to Madge - as in close enough to ask questions about the girl's personal live - for some reason she couldn't explain, but nevertheless, she cared about the older girl.

"There was this taskforce they formed to supervise rebuilding at the districts," Ash explained. "Margaret's applied for a role there, and once she's out of here, they're gonna give it to her. They're gonna be nomads for a while. Do you know where you're gonna go?"

Prim looked at him and shook her head.

"No one seems to know," she told him. "My sisters and my brothers-in-law are all still dazed. Geez, the other day, I thought Gale had gone insane. I walked in, and he was all curled up on his bed, clutching his head and begging things to stop and all. Turned out that he was just trapped in his head or something, but still, it was pretty scary. Between him, Peeta's new leg, and Jo and Kat dealing with their own issues, it would be months before I really know where I'm going. There has been talks about me living with Haymitch and Effie here in Capitol, but no one decided yet, so I don't really know."

Sven looked sad, for a bit. She chuckled and squeezed his hand, as butterflies started fluttering in her stomach. He didn't want her to go away. She'd never thought she would find a boy who was as crazy about her as her brothers-in-law were about her sisters, but looked like she was wrong. After all, Prim Everdeen was, too, someone.

Prim did live with Haymitch and Effie at the Training Centre building, for a while after she was released. With her sisters - and their fake husbands, as she discovered later as she overheard Haymitch and Effie's conversations - in Mental Health, she really had nowhere else to go. Oh, well. Things were fine. Effie kept things in order, and Haymitch kept them exciting, so her life with them was good. With her cousins Caroline and Ash being kept in Mental Health too, Sven had temporarily lived with this Victor from his district, Blight, five floors down from where Prim was. They had so much fun sneaking out and around, climbing things up and seeing things they weren't supposed to. It all came to an end when some media journalist recognized her and took a photo of them kissing in front of the Training Centre building. It made the front page of some trash media, and for a while they couldn't go out without heavy disguises on, but at the end of the day, all was still good.

At least for Prim. Sven had to sit down through two hours or so of "civil trial" by her sisters and their boyfriends, and came back with what could have been the remnants of a beet-red blush. He refused to tell her what went on, but from the crass comments Haymitch made, it looked like he'd been warned not to 'touch' her. Until she was sixteen or something like that.

Prim deliberately slept through the hospital's visiting hours for a week afterwards, as a revenge.

Her sisters and their boyfriends were eventually released from the hospital, three months after admission. They all still looked haunted and scarred, but they were alive. For two months or so, they stayed in this Capitol apartment. Five of them, in one room. With Ash and Madge in one of the other rooms, the friends Caroline and Wheaton in another, Finnick and Annie in another, and Sven on the living room couch. It was, to put it nicely, mad. Simply mad. Everyone fought like children, the couples all screamed at each other over the tiniest of things, people walked in on people doing things, and a whole myriad of other scenarios. It made them all alive, though, and on those frequent times someone was having a meltdown, all the others were there for him or her.

Prim never thought she'd feel sad when they leave the apartment of madness, but she found herself crying on her floor mattress as both her brothers-in-law - she wasn't going to refer to them with any other name now, for they had been nothing but big brothers to her - announced their intentions to join the new Government's ranks.

"We're moving to Two, by the way," Peeta told her that night, as he woke up to her stifled sobs on the pillow. "You'll still be with Sven."

And suddenly, things were a hundred time better.

The move to Two, which was the new centre of the government, happened around a month after that announcement. They took the train there, and she was shunned to sit with Sven as soon as it started moving. Her sisters just wanted to cuddle with their boyfriends.

"Excited to go back to school?" Sven asked her, as they sat together watching the rocky mountains flashing by from their window.

"Yeah," she answered. The past year had been crazy, and as much as she secretly loathed homework, she was excited to finally be able to study, again. Her Head Doctor had been surprised - in a good way - when she told him she still wanted to be a doctor, even after everything. He'd even promised her that she could train with him, once she finished with her studies. Wouldn't be for several years, for she'd missed a year of school and wouldn't be done until she was nineteen, but, still, the thought of it kept her excited, in some sense.

Life was coming back to order. And she, Primrose Everdeen, was coming back alive.

* * *

**Johanna**

After the war, and after the stint in Mental Health, she found herself rummaging through Snow's hidden records with permission from President Paylor, who was formerly Commander Paylor of District Eight.

There were things she'd already known, such as details of each Hunger Games' arenas. There were things she didn't want to know, such as how much money Snow made selling each and every Victor - including how much her virginity went for. But then there were things which were interesting to know, such as the fact that her reaping, and that of Ash Mason, weren't at all accidental.

Not all reapings for all Games were fixed. Some were, though, for certain reasons. And Snow had kept genetic records of all district children born after he took office, so that he could throw the ones he deemed interesting and the ones he wanted dead into the Arena.

All along, the bastard had known that the Everdeens and the Masons were related. And that both families had mixed district Seven and district Twelve heritages, descending from some First Rebellion rebels. They'd all intrigued and terrified him, so much that he'd put Ash in the Arena, then Johanna. He'd planned for all their little brothers and little sisters to be put in the Arena in the later Games, though this plan seemed to change when Ash and Johanna both did things which infuriated him.

Snow was also the one ordering for that special procedure to be performed on Johanna when she won, instead of just giving her those shots given to most other Pleasure Squad members. He'd ordered a similar thing to be done to Ash two years prior when the boy won, and to Caroline and Katniss in their years. Apparently he was dead undecided between letting them have children then throwing their children back in the arena, and trying to cut off their mixed family lines altogether for they symbolized district equalities and unity. Johanna threw up when she read this, for she now knew how sick Snow had been in the head. However, it was overall a good information. They now knew whom among the Victors should be sent for reversal surgeries, and who were fine.

There was one other final record, spanning the years of the 74th and 75th Games, that sent a chill down Johanna's spine and a sparked a fury in her soul. After her final act of defiance replacing Caroline for an assignment, Snow had wanted her destroyed. Not killed, but destroyed. He'd wanted to see her in pieces, for she'd defied him.

The first rule change of the 74th Games had gone through him. He'd let it pass, under the condition that the second rule change happened. Partially for the sake of entertainment, and partially for the sake of destroying Johanna. He'd known what she'd done to get the first rule proposed. This all backfired on him, though, as Katniss pulled out the nightlock and displayed, herself, an act of defiance. He'd then ordered for the third rule change, and switched strategies. He'd still wanted Johanna destroyed, but now, he'd also wanted Katniss dead.

For the 75th Games, which was the Quarter Quell, he'd deliberately sent in Katniss but not Johanna. The Gamemakers had actually been instructed not to let Katniss live this time - and not to let any of Johanna's friends live, too. The person he'd wanted to keep alive was Peeta, for his wicked mind knew how devastated he would be. Or Annie, who would most likely have gone completely out of her mind without Finnick. Johanna was supposed to be punished by watching her loved ones dying, and watching Peeta or Annie going crazy.

Johanna set the document alight in a bonfire, together with all the Snow regalias and Old Capitol paraphernalia seized from the Capitolites and from the government buildings. That, like the other stuff, was a part of the past which had to go. The part of the past no one - let alone Katniss - needed to know. Her sister had gotten enough traumas to last a lifetime, without having to know all of those stuff.

She did confide in Gale, though, the first night they spent together at their new home in District Two. And he, in return had confided something else he knew to her.

When the investigator found the recording of Coin's hovercraft's last minutes in the air among the ruins, Haymitch had worked and pulled some strings for it to be hidden from public. For a few nights, he'd sat down there with Volts, secretly looking at the thing and editing it. All under everyone's noses. Including Johanna's. She and her sisters weren't supposed to know anything about what happened.

Their mother, their poor, dead mother whom Johanna and Katniss never realized they loved until she was gone, was the one responsible for Alma Coin and Plutarch Heavensbee's deaths. The recording had shown her entering the cockpit and hitting the pilots at the backs of their heads, with something which looked like a rifle seized from one of her keepers. It had also shown her hitting and smashing all the buttons on the dashboard, and pulling the lever on and off. And eventually, as a final attack, she'd pulled out something from her pocket. A grenade, undoubtedly stolen from one of her keepers too. From then on, everything else was history as they knew it.

What Haymitch and Volts did was essentially fraud. Not for the sake of Johanna's mother, for the woman was dead. But for the sake of the Everdeen sisters. The mentor had seen the kind of problems they might have as Alma Coin's killer's children, and decided to wipe out the past for them. Now, this was unethical, but as the saying said, "all is fair in love and war". Haymitch did that out of love, and they were at war. Their mother had done what they did out of love, to end the war and give them a better life.

Everything were in shades of grey, really. But for now, Johanna decided it was all justified.

They - all of them, really - would have a lifetime to try to do good for Panem. To be its true pioneers and leaders, much much more than what Coin and Snow were capable of being.

**And their battle ends here.**

* * *

And that's how the story ends, everyone. Thanks for reading, and for staying with me to this point.

There are two more chapters I've written as part of this story. The first one is a pre-epilogue, covering the Everdeen sisters and other Victors' lives for the first few years after the rebellion as they healed and helped rebuilding the new Panem. The second one is a short epilogue, providing total closure for the story. I'll see you in two or three days with the pre-epilogue, which I'm still editing at the moment. Till then, have a good Sunday and a good start of the week! :)


	30. Pre Epilogue: From the Ashes

**AN: **Here's the pre-epilogue... a.k.a the "happily ever after". Posted at 3:50 in the morning, when a plot bunny for "A Tale of Two Districts" prevents me from going back to bed after waking up at 2:45.

I would like to welcome new follower perdita4321, thank new favouriters AlohaJay and ThisMortalCoil, and convey my special thanks to my reviewers: ellie82, jc52185, De-BardatBoston, nothing2000, and Norbert's Mom. I would like to thank, too, the other readers who have been with this story up until this point. You all brightened up my days :).

**Disclaimer: **All are Suzanne Collins'. I'm just borrowing. Oh, and adding some who are mine :).

* * *

**Pre-Epilogue: From the Ashes**

**Johanna**

**Year Zero, Post Rebellion**

She got married - for real, this time - two weeks after they arrived at Two. Cinna, Portia, and the prep teams came up from Capitol for the occasion, and they decked her up for the big event.

The first time Gale brought up the idea - well, not exactly, more like announced that they were getting married for real -, she'd fought him with all she had. The idea seemed ridiculous, for there was a lot more other things they could do with the money, instead of just buying fancy clothes and having a party. Not to mention that they could just reinstate that non-existant marriage record with the new government and be done with it. Or the fact that she was still working on trusting him again, after his Warlord Act during the rebellion. She still needed to convince herself to trust him again, to have faith that he'd always put her first, even after he'd knelt in front of her and begged her forgiveness in their Head Doctor's office in Capitol. Even after his Head Doctor called her in and explained the myriad of complicated mental issues that he had - all underneath that facade.

It was, of all people, Peeta Mellark, who had convinced her to just open her heart and let herself and Gale be happy.

_"He's not perfect, Johanna," the younger boy told her, as she sat in the kitchen of their crazy Capitol apartment, seething. "But you make each other happy. You should let go of the past. It's the new world we're in."_

_That, and the fact that her sisters were jumping up and down over the prospect of seeing her in a wedding dress, sent her back running to Gale in their ridiculous family bedroom, to say 'yes'._

"You happy with this, girl?" Venia asked her gently, tilting the mirror so that she could see how she looked.

She wasn't expecting much, but to her surprise, she liked the woman staring at her from the mirror, big brown eyes and full cheeks and all. She looked like herself. Not a tribute. Not a Victor. Not anything else. Just like herself.

"Yes," she answered the older woman. "I love this."

Venia knelt down and gave her a fleeting, careful kiss on her cheek.

"You have no idea how happy I am, girl," the woman softly told her, looking a bit teary as she smiled. "For once, I'm preparing you for the man you love. All those year, I'd wished I could do anything to help you. You're such a good girl. You didn't deserve that."

"None of us hardly deserve any of those shit, Venia," Johanna waved her off, laughing. "The world's just messed up in general."

"Johanna, My Dear!" Effie scolded her, from across the room. The Escort had been busy relaying the last minutes briefing to Katniss, who was Johanna's maid-of-honor or something like that. She would actually call her sister a 'maid-of-dishonor', though, for so far all Katniss did was helping her venting out and swearing and getting angry at people. Caroline and Johanna's boy best friends Finnick and Ash, who were also her 'attendants' for the day, were no help too, with them disappearing to visit Gale and leak out the details of what Johanna looked like. Poor Effie was doing her head in trying to get them all to behave.

"You're going to be a mother in under three months! What would become of your child, with that loose mouth of yours."

Johanna rolled her eyes, and winked at Katniss, who looked like she about to burst out laughing.

'Awesome,' she mouthed to her sister. And that really sent Katniss laughing hard, as hard as she could, with the corsetry of her flame-orange dress.

Johanna herself only stayed composed for long enough, until her baby kicked her hard on the kidney, wholeheartedly agreeing with what she's saying.

Yes. She was pregnant. In the midst of chaos of those last few months in Thirteen, she'd forgotten at all about birth control and the fact that they'd reversed whatever Snow and his minions did to stop her from getting pregnant with her clients. That nausea and lethargy she'd felt that day in the Capitol turned out to be the start of a severe morning sickness, which put her in drip for a week or so afterwards. It took Gale a few weeks to come to terms with it - and it took her even longer - but after hours of talking and counselling sessions, they were now in a happy place with it. They were having a girl. And she already had a name, the name Johanna's mother originally wanted to give her eldest daughter. The grandmother-to-be, Hazelle Hawthorne, remembered having a conversation with the woman when they had both been pregnant regarding names, and remembered clearly what name the woman was actually thinking about.

"Aisle time, Doll," Haymitch hollered from the door, snapping Johanna out of her trance. "Come over here and let's get this done. Never thought I'd ever walk a bride down the aisle, let alone a pregnant bride, but I guess this would do. Chin up, back straight, come on!"

The wedding itself was short and sweet, but magical. And she barely remembered what happened at the party afterwards. The only thing she clearly remembered was being helped onto the floor in front of their fireplace, and seeing her husband's face as they toasted each other in their district's tradition, in the presence of their families and friends.

"Forever?" she asked him, blushing in all the glows and in a happiness she'd never thought she would feel before, later as they were alone in their room. The wounds of the war was still fresh in their souls, and in everyone else's souls, and they were walking on shaky grounds every day. But she was determined to make it work, for the sake of the the world and themselves. And she knew he would be with her in this new journey. He had lots of things to move on from, and had been seeing a Head Doctor to work out his issues, but he was trying. And fighting, for both of them. For their families. For their friends.

"As long as fate allows," he answered her, kissing her lips, then, her swollen belly where their daughter resided.

* * *

**Katniss**

**Year Five, Post Rebellion**

For someone who'd announced to the whole country that they'd toasted at the ripe age of seventeen, Peeta surely took his sweet time to really make the thing happen.

Looking back on the last five years, though, she was glad he'd waited. It wouldn't have been right before today. They still had a bit of growing up to do at the end of the war, no matter how old they'd felt then. No matter how weary they'd been of the world.

The first two years after the rebellion were hard on them. They were still going in and out of therapies - mental therapies for both of them, and physical therapies for Peeta and his prosthesis. Between those, Peeta's job, Katniss's social works and studies, and raising a damaged, teenaged Prim, there were very little of themselves left to give. There was very little of Katniss left to give, to be more exact. Peeta, true to himself, had always had more than enough to give to everyone. He could be getting up at the crack of dawn to go to a therapy session, staying in his office at the Rebuilding Taskforce headquarters for nine hours, spending an hour helping Johanna and Gale with their baby daughter, and at the end of the day, still taking care of Katniss because she was having a 'bad head day'. It quickly got out of hand, and one day, his Head Doctor specifically called Katniss to his office to discuss about his situation. It wasn't particularly pleasant for Katniss, for the man had essentially told her to let go of whatever she was holding on to and stop being self-centered. At the end of the day, though, she was glad for his advice. If it wasn't for that, she wouldn't have been able to pull herself up back on her feet and be the companion Peeta deserved. Be the sister her sisters and Gale deserved. Be the aunt her little niece Iris deserved.

Then as things began to calm down, and routine began to form, they'd started having more time together again. Time to just wind down and be the youngsters they were, without having to care about rebellions or survival or some evil who threatened to kill your family and friends. Time to just enjoy an idle life, which turned out to be as enjoyable as a messy, dramatic one - as long as you knew how to enjoy it.

Of course, things would never be perfect. There would be days in which Katniss would just lock herself up with Johanna, remembering their mother. Their sweet mother, whom they'd never really appreciated. Their mother who'd tried her best to overcome her weaknesses and be someone they could be proud of, though back then, in their angsty teenaged minds, she was nothing but the source of all their problems. Their mother, whose eyes stared back at them everyday, on Prim's and Iris's faces. Occasionally, Prim would join them, for an entirely different reason. Prim would just be missing their mother and the little things about the woman, such as how she smelt and what her cooking tasted like. Things neither Katniss nor Johanna never paid attention to after their Pa's death.

"Let go," their Head Doctor told them, one day as they came in together to see him and talk about their mother - at Prim's initiative. "There's nothing you can do now, and you've learnt a lot from it. Let it go, and live your lives."

It took Prim a little while - and even longer for Katniss and Johanna - to let the advice sink in. But, one day, it just happened, and they found themselves laughing as they tried recreating this stew their mother had always made. After all, it was entirely possible to move on.

Though life was chaos for all of them when little Iris made her appearance, at the end, she saved them. Including Katniss. Every time she fell the world was all dark, every time she was tempted not to trust anyone, one look at her niece's face would remind her that hope existed. A reminder that life went on. A reminder that she didn't fight for nothing - that they didn't fight for nothing.

She had always been in love with Peeta, and vice versa. There was no need to fall back in love. There was a little bit of room, though, for redefining their love. For rediscovering each other, as they grew up alongside each other. To learn to live with each other, now that he was a Government Official, and she worked with troubled teenagers and held singing sessions for traumatized little kids.

Of course, Katniss and Peeta's story wouldn't be complete without a public proposal. He went down on a knee right there right then on the stage, as they wrapped up the ceremony they'd held for the Fourth Year Anniversary of the rebellion. She was reduced into a blubbering mess in front of Panem, and everyone clapped and ohh-ed for them. To add insult to the injury, apparently she was the only one in their Victors' circle who didn't know about this. He'd gone to practically everyone and asked for their permissions, before he did so. He even made a day trip to District Six - where Madge was currently stationed as a Rebuilding Supervisor - and asked her childhood friend.

That was a little over a year ago. Since then, the planning had been going, courtesy of Effie - the party Queen of the group. Now without the Capitol wigs and make up, she'd moved in with Haymitch to his new house in Two. Like the Everdeen girls and their men, he had also not been able to go back to Twelve, to face what remained of home and the ghosts of the memories. And he too had jumped on to Government bandwagon, working with other representatives from other districts on a new, fairer law for the Republic. Him and Effie, they were an on-again, off-again couple. Until a few months ago, when a little accident happened. Now, they were always on. And were the second most argumentative couple in the Republic Village, only beaten by Gale and Johanna whose explosive fights over what was for dinner and who was to do the housework rang through the whole block.

And right now, an hour before the wedding was to start, Effie was hollering across the hall at Haymitch.

"Haymitch! Stop giving the boys that liquor, you fool! Let's get this right this time! Just because we don't have a pregnant bride, doesn't mean that we need a drunk as groom!"

Whatever Haymitch's answer was, Katniss didn't hear it, for Johanna had slammed the door behind Effie.

"Yeah, yeah," the older sister huffed out, plopping down on a chair. Her hand flew to her belly - already swelling with baby number two. Another girl, to join big sister Iris, who was sitting curiously on Katniss's feet, looking up at her auntie. "Keep egging on me, Effie Dear. At least I got married before my brat was born. Look at you now."

Katniss couldn't help but snorting, as she looked at her older sister through the mirror in front of her. At twenty five, Johanna still had trouble controlling her temper and snark. And most likely it would never change, but it was alright for Katniss. It wasn't mostly directed at her anyway, nowadays.

The little phone-like thing - Walkie Talkie, as Gale told them a hundred or so times when scowling - buzzed again. Johanna let out a desperate groan and handed it down to Prim, who had been sitting jabbing things on her little tablet device. Most likely sending messages to Sven, who was just down the hall. Nineteen and months away from finishing school, her little sister was definitely hopeless for Sven Lee. The boy was now a young man, and was in the middle of training as a doctor for the Panem Army.

"Fine, Jo," Prim chided her older sister, snatching the Walkie Talkie from Johanna. "Don't talk to your husband."

"Or the Supreme Wedding Event Coordinator, as he secretly likes to be called," Johanna snapped back, her hand stroking her bump. "Don't be like your father, won't you, kid?"

Well, judging how regular Johanna's morning sickness had been this time, and how the kid had wreaked havoc every time her mother forgot to eat, it looked like there really was a mini-Gale inside there. But this morning, Katniss found Gale - and his Walkie-Talkie and constant orders on everyone involved in the wedding - unbearable, too, so she kept quiet.

"How's this?" Octavia asked excitedly, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She looked at herself in the mirror. In all honesty, she looked breathtaking. They did her face the way they'd done it for her first Tribute Parade, when she first kissed Peeta on that chariot. To Effie and Gale's relief, there would be no flames involved this time. Though there would be a dress transformation - which was supposed to be kept secret, as Cinna requested. Now the official designer of all the Republic uniforms and for the Victors, Katniss's old stylist was still as daring and clever as he was six years ago.

"I like this," she told Octavia, who immediately started jumping up and down like an excited child. "Thanks, Octavia."

"Anytime, Katniss! Now, if only you would do your hair the way Primrose's is..."

Katniss took a look over her shoulder, at Prim's shoulder-length, blue-and-orange tipped blonde locks. As if the colours weren't enough, there was a patch at the front of the left side which was intentionally shaven off. The kid really enjoyed giving her sisters and brothers - Gale, especially - a heart attack.

"No, thanks," she decided with a smile, as she eyed her blonde-highlighted dark locks in its loose bun. "I'm happy with this."

The door creaked open, and a flustered, pregnant Effie entered with Cinna in tow. The stylist's arrival caught the entire room's attention. Even Madge, who sat exhausted at the corner quietly, next to the chattering Annie, Caroline, and Delly, perked up. Time to get the dress on.

"Boob alert!" Prim hollered, as Katniss stood up and untied her robe. "Look away!"

Katniss rolled her eyes, for it was truly a joke aimed at her.

Cinna helped her stepping up into her dress and buttoned the tiny buttons up, one by one.

"Done," he said, once the white dress was on. "Looks like a bride to me."

Katniss chuckled, as she gave the man a hug. Cinna was one of the reasons why she stood here today. The stylist had believed in her all along, even when all she'd wanted to do was to die so that Peeta could live.

"Sweetheart," Haymitch called, poking his head into the door. "Time to go up. Drill Sergeant's yelling orders at everyone now."

They all laughed. After a girls' group photo Prim demanded that they had - so that she could share on Panembook, that social networking thing big with the younger kids nowadays -, they all marched out onto their positions outside the Village Hall, where the wedding was to happen.

"Slow down that thinking, Brainless," Johanna reminded her, as she pulled the veil down over Katniss's face. "Would be nice to actually remember something from your wedding, that you can hold on to when the man's being ridiculous. Not that Mellark has it in him anyway, but.. whatever. Just slow down."

And she did remember it. She slowed down.

She took in the giddiness and melancholy of her entrance, the look on Peeta's face as he saw her walking in. That handshake and hug between Haymitch and Peeta, as her mentor gave her away. The happiness in everyone's face, the excitement in the eyes of little Iris and little Finnick Odair Jr. - or Nick, as the world didn't need two Finnicks - as they sat on the floor watching. Baby Shelly Odair's babbles in the middle of the ceremony, and everyone's laughter over it. Every word of the vow, every look Peeta gave her. That kiss which sealed everything. And of course, the party afterwards. Peeta's reaction - and that of the crowd - as she lifted one arm and twirled during their first dance, transforming her white gown into a short, wide-skirted flame orange dress. The cake - made by the groom himself, despite others' insistence that he stayed back and just enjoy his days. The speeches, including that embarrassing one from Johanna involving all their childhood adventures and dumb moments.

And the toasting. That gentleness in Peeta's eyes, tainted by the ghosts of the Games and the war, but still kind and gentle and warm. Sniffles from all around the room. From Madge, who'd come all the way from her current station at Ten, where she lived with her partner Ash. From Delly, who'd come all the way from Twelve, where Thom was now the District Rebuilding Coordinator. From Caroline, who was now Katniss and Johanna's partner in their social missions, having decided to leave her previous Government job. From Annie, who was another social mission partner. From Prim, and her best friend Penny - who lived with Haymitch and Effie and was still dating Rory. Even from Little Iris, though later, they would find out the girl had no idea why everyone was crying when her auntie and uncle were really happy.

They surrendered themselves to the fire which consumed them, as soon as they were left alone.

As they laid in the embers, afterwards, he looked down at her.

"All is well," he said, gentle yet steady. "Real or not real?"

She answered, "real."

* * *

**Primrose**

**Year Ten, Post Rebellion**

There was no place like home, really.

She realized this, as she stepped into Katniss and Peeta's house, in the Republic Village of District Two.

Officially, it was no longer District Two. They'd made a new name for it, just like they did the other districts. But she would forever refer to it as District Two, for that was what she'd known her whole life. Hell, no one actually used the proper name, unless in television broadcasts or things like that. It was always District Two, in conversations.

"Stampede coming," Sven warned behind her. "Three. Two. One."

"AUNTIE PRIM!"

Little balls of energy crashed onto her, tackling her to the ground and tickling her. For human beings that small, those kids surely had lots of energy.

"Hey!" she jokingly chided them, laughing. "Let me live!"

"NO!" the youngest of them - Johanna and Gale's third girl - screamed on her face. "LAUGH TILL DIE!"

Ten years ago, it would have sent her to panic. But now, she just laughed it off, like she was supposed to. It was empty threat, after all.

"Alright, alright," the tickle squad captain, Finnick and Annie's Shelly, decided after a bit. "Auntie Prim might live. We're gotta go find another baddie."

With that, they went and attacked Sven, who played along better than Prim did. For someone who didn't have any younger siblings, Sven did really well with kids.

"Done with the savages?" her cousin Ash asked, smirking. He'd been standing in the foyer all along, watching quietly as the kids did their ambush.

"Wait till I tell your Missus, Cousin," she threatened him playfully, giving him a quick hug. "Madge won't have your ignorance, I bet."

"Forget the goody-two-shoes," Ash waved her off. "She's wiped out as in the guestroom, the last time I checked. Spent the whole morning snapping at me for no reason. Even my own kids hate me. And they aren't even born."

"Well, you're despicable," Prim said, sticking out her tongue playfully.

"It's my mission to be the world's most despicable creature, Little Cousin," Ash responded, winking. "Do come in. Not my house, I know. But still, do come in."

She laughed, as she stepped in past him and into the living room. It was empty for the time being, if not for her two brothers-in-law discussing over something at the corner with Haymitch. Politics, most likely. They were a whole lot into it, for a different reason. Gale was there because he liked arranging things and solving problems. Peeta was there because he liked standing up for humanity. And Haymitch... well, he was basically there to stop the boys from fucking up.

And heavens help her, Sven was now into it as well. Because... well, she had no idea why. Hopefully it would just be a phase and it would pass. Johanna and Katniss and her touring the country in an election campaign just didn't sound right. Not when Katniss was being the scowly, socially-awkward Katniss, and Johanna had a mouth so loose it would fall off anytime. The two of them were lethal already, without Prim joining in. She bet they would really give their men heart attacks.

And then, she heard something coming. From her right side.

She didn't really know what it could be, but she ducked nevertheless. Her Career Training taught her this.

The thing hit the wall and fell off with a loud clang a second later. A dessert spoon. Looked like she was walking right into Iris's target practice.

"Whoops!" the girl herself appeared a second later. "Sorry Auntie Prim! Was just showing Nick how to throw things."

That was her niece, really. Ten years old, and already crushing on Finnick Odair Jr. Which was understandable, for the boy was his father reincarnated - or more like a spitting image, for the original Finnick was very much alive.

Thing was, Iris wasn't a thrower. The girl was her father and middle aunt's pride and joy when it came to archery, but definitely should not come anywhere near her mother's axes. Same as her middle sister. The little one, though, was another story. If the world thought they'd had enough Johanna, then they were wrong. The girl was a mini-Johanna, through and through. The eyes, the sneer, and the toss.

And judging the fact that Katniss and Peeta's boys were approaching, the target practice wasn't going to get any better. Reuben and Farl - indistinguishable until that day a few years ago when the daredevil older twin fell over and had the skin above his eyebrow stitched - were essentially stockier, wrestler, boy versions of their mother. And yes, they also weren't made for throwing things. So, with playful ruffles on the dark-haired twins' heads, Prim made her way to the kitchen. It was crammed with women, as she'd guessed before. Plus Finnick Odair, who still liked hanging around with his ladies, despite being thirty-five and having three children already. No, almost four. Annie, who was humming to herself cutting up some fish on the kitchen table, looked like she was about to pop. There was no doubt about Finnick Odair's virility, after all.

"Here comes the little sister," Johanna hissed, as she walked past Prim with a big pot in her hands. "We could use some help distracting Odair here, Baby E. Go entertain him."

Prim laughed, and dragged Finnick out through the side door, despite the man's protests. Upon realizing it was Prim, though, the former squad captain laughed and lifted her high up in the air. Finnick would always have a soft spot for Prim. If initially she'd just taken it for granted and took advantage of it, she'd eventually tried to figure out why, and found the answer a couple of years ago. Apparently Prim had reminded Finnick of his younger self, before the Games and everything else. And that was why the man had been so protective over her childhood innocence, shielding her view from things in the battlefield those years ago.

"Hey Big Mellark!" he called excitedly for Wheaton, who was busy with the barbecue grill. "Baby Everdeen's here!"

"Everdeen," Prim corrected, just to be sassy. "I'm the only one left."

And no more, she said to herself, with an internal smirk. When I said I went on a holiday, I actually went on a holiday and got married.

"Oh, hello!" Wheaton waved at her, looking above the meat. "Perfect timing for Sunday lunch!"

"Or Sunday madness, really," Prim corrected, smirking. "Kids running around. Boys talking politics. Girls in the kitchen. I could hear all of you from the end of the block, I swear."

They all just laughed afterwards. It was definitely true.

Sven found her soon afterwards, with the Kids of the Victors Squad in tow. Danny and Maria Cartwright. Rory and Penny, soon-to-be both Hawthorne. They had all ended up with each other it was ridiculous, but, really, in retrospect, they couldn't have gotten together with anyone else. Not with a stranger who would understand what it meant to be standing there in the battlefield you weren't meant to be in at the first place. Not with an oblivious, ignorant person, who wouldn't understand all the nightmares and sudden breakdowns, and all the other remainders of war they brought with them.

Even Wheaton Mellark and Caroline Mason, who had insisted they were just 'friends' for years on end, eventually succumbed to their attraction. The day they came out with the news that they were expecting, Prim collected a bit of money from the other members of the Victors' Squad who'd put on a bet on how many years they would take to get together. Prim's guess of lucky number seven turned out to be the right one.

Lunch was ready after what seemed like forever, and after a bit of chaos caused by the running little Victor spawns - who all proved to be as lethal as their parents had been - they finally got to sit and eat. In some ways, it felt like that one day at the abandoned Capitol gym, again. Meal and stories and stupid things. Except that there were Haymitch and Effie, and all the kids running around. And there was no fear this time. Only happiness, and that little amount of somberness which would never go away.

"So," Prim's sister Katniss mentioned, as they enjoyed dessert. "When's the toasting, Mrs. Lee?"

Damn. She was busted, already.

"Who told you?" she hissed, throwing a look across the room at her brothers-in-law who were cornering Sven for something.

"Well," her other sister Johanna chimed in, with a devilish grin on her face, "you haven't forgotten that your brothers know everything, have you?"

Damn brothers and their snooping abilities.

The toasting happened that very day, in front of Katniss and Peeta's fireplace. Even though Prim was dead mad for getting busted, and dead red from her brothers' disappointed rants, at the end of the day she was glad that she'd had the chance to have a family-only toasting. Without Effie hollering orders, and Gale barking out on the Walkie-Talkie.

Both her sisters' weddings had scarred her for life, seemingly.

And don't get her to mention the pregnancies and labors. At this stage of her life, she was nowhere near ready for the horrors.

* * *

**The Everdeen Sisters**

**Year Fifteen, Past Rebellion**

Fifteen years. That was how long it had been, since Capitol and its old districts system fell. That was how long it had been, since their mother passed. That was how long it had been, since life became what they knew it as of now.

That was how long it had been, since they had last considered District Twelve home.

Going for a visit there was Prim's idea. By then, she was pregnant with her second child; little sibling to her year-old firstborn. In a crazy coincidence, both Johanna and Katniss were also pregnant. Johanna, with her fourth. Katniss, with her third - though technically it was only her second pregnancy. Even crazier, the girls they were carrying would be born within the same month.

And that was how the rollercoaster started for the extended family, for they were so in sync when it came to being hormonal and having crazy cravings. One day, it just so happened that someone mentioned Twelve and they started crying. And that was when Prim's idea was born.

Gale and Peeta had both faced their demons and gone back here, separately. Johanna and Katniss had been too weak to come along on those times, too scared to face what this place which was once home had become. Even with Delly and Thom there, they still couldn't bear to come. They just weren't ready.

They never really thought about it, until Prim mentioned the idea. And it was when all of them felt enthusiastic - and the yet-to-be-born girl cousins decided to wreck a simultaneous havoc in their mothers' bellies - that they knew they were eventually ready.

Their husbands stayed back to mind the kids, and armed with nothing but each other, they made the train journey back to Twelve. Prim had actually prepared herself well, for their Head Doctor had warned that her sisters might have Games flashbacks once they got into the train, but nothing happened. They just spent their time talking. Well, gossiping. With Johanna campaigning against sexual exploitations of teenagers, Katniss teaching choir to kindergarten students, and Prim being a doctor, they had very little of their professional lives to discuss together. The only failsafe topic seemed to be, people. Specifically, people they knew.

... more specifically, their politician husbands, their kids, and their friends.

Delly picked them up from the train station. Now the Mayor's Wife, she still looked pretty much like the friend they knew. And acted just as sunnily, with just an undertone of somberness. Among all of them, her healing had been the most successful.

"I'm going to walk you today," she said happily, as they made a stop in this new, fancy cafe in the modern train station. "Thom's taking the kids to work today."

Well, surely, Thom and Delly's kids were well-versed in the rulings of the district.

Twelve was an entirely different place now. The only thing remaining was the Victors' Village, which had been maintained as a National Heritage. All the houses were used for the different departments and task forces of the Local Government, with the exception of the three which used to be occupied. They'd turned those into museums holding memorials of their Tributes for all the Hunger Games, and tributes to their Rebellion Heroes.

"Your house's a tourist attraction now," Delly explained, looking a bit sheepish, as they stood looking at their packed house from afar. "It's popular with families with daughters - you're such role models."

The rest of Twelve were all new buildings, decent houses, and a long strip of shops owned by Merchants, Seams, and newcomers from other districts alike. Children, of all different appearances, ran around together, laughing on the streets. The divide was no more, and everyone were equal.

The Seam was no more. It was now a neighbourhood with lovely family houses, gardens and all. The coal dust perpetually covering the streets were gone. The mines had been shut down, after deemed inoperable by mining specialists from overseas. They had a new industry now. Medicines. Most of the population worked for this medicine factory, which was built a bit out of the district, beyond the fence which had also been torn down.

"You recognize this?" Delly asked them, pointing at a standing sign of some kind on the street, around the area which used to be the square.

They looked up, and saw two paintings on the sign. First, of a reaping crowd, and a scared, dark-haired girl with clothes too big getting dragged forward. Then another one of another reaping crowd, with another dark-haired girl walking forward, clad in a pretty blue dress.

"Thom thought it was a good idea to put down some markers where you all had been, and Peeta drew the pictures for him," Delly explained. "This one's for Justice Building. There are several others scattered throughout, if you don't mind walking."

And so they went on the journey. There was the Mellark bakery, and a picture of a young Katniss crouching next to the pig pen. Then the old district fencing, with a picture of Johanna and Katniss slipping underneath it. The street they used to pass as they walked to school, with a picture of a little Prim walking between her two big sisters. The street to Cray's, with a picture of Johanna shivering in a red dress under the rain.

Finally, they saw a painting of a family of five. A dark-haired father. A golden-haired mother. Smiling down at their three little girls, who'd all resembled them in some sense.

"This was where your old house was," Delly explained. "It was gone at the end of the rebellion, but we know it by heart."

And then, right then, a sense of peace engulfed Johanna, Katniss, and Prim. There, the world felt as simple as it was when they were little girls; safe and happy. Pain and sorrow were worlds away.

It was a place where they'd first been loved. Though, clearly, not the last.

**The End.**

* * *

Thanks for reading and making it here everyone. I'm gallivanting between smiling and crying now, for this is so bittersweet. The story I want to tell is finished now.

There's this little 800 words epilogue left. I'll post it with my final thank you notes within a few days from now.

Till then, have a great week!


	31. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

**Year Forty Four, Post Rebellion**

**Iris Hawthorne Odair**

Of all my maternal grandparents' twelve grandchildren, I was the only one to inherit my grandmother's eyes.

And her aptitude for healing, as it later turned out. Even Aunt Prim's children - who had two doctors as parents - didn't inherit this talent. They discovered I was a natural when I was fifteen, when I'd gambled with trying to patch up my oldest boy cousin Reuben after he'd fallen off and cut his arm open. We'd all been playing at Haymitch's - he refused to be called Uncle or Grandpa, so Haymitch is was - backyard, as our mothers took Auntie Prim to the hospital. Or so they thought. As freaky as it was, my second youngest sister and my girl cousins were delivered hours apart from one another. They shared the same birthday, as a result, and one trait. Fiery. As in, seriously on fire.

I went and became a doctor after I was done with school. Not just a doctor. A Psychiatrist, or as my mother kindly put it in layperson's term, 'Head Doctor'. People think it was a weird choice, for my parents and uncles and aunts and practically everyone I knew ended up seeing 'Head Doctors' all throughout their lives. But to me - and to everyone else who'd known - it wasn't. It was a logical choice.

I wanted to heal people who'd been broken as badly as the Victors and the rebellion fighters were.

My husband, Junior (well, it was Nick when we were kids, but once we were rambunctious teenagers, Junior sounded more fun), once pointed out that we had actually survived the fights of the rebellion, too. His mother had knowingly fought pregnant, and mine had unwittingly done so. In some sense, the odds were really in our favours. And yes, they were.

The Paylor Government had destroyed all the recordings of The Hunger Games, as well as all the rebellion propos, a couple of years after the rebellion ended. Of course, like all other forbidden materials, there were still some secret copies floating around. Junior and I got our hands on them when we were nineteen and dating. We spent a whole weekend watching the few ones we needed to watch. Junior's parents' two Games. My mother's. My aunt Katniss's and uncle Peeta's. Cousins Ash and Caroline's two Games. The Quarter Quell. All the propos.

I skipped two days of my medical classes afterwards, for I couldn't stop crying for my parents and my uncles and aunts and cousins and family friends. I had no idea how they'd all coped with that, when they were even younger than what I'd been then.

We gave the tape to Junior's sister Shelly. She then passed the tape to my next oldest sister Eve, who in turn passed it to Aunt Katniss's twins Reuben and Farl. And from then on, everything was history. My other sisters Dawn, Skye, and Claude watched them, once each of them was old enough. And so did Aunt Katniss's younger children, Willow and Rye; and Aunt Prim's children, Cedar, Olivia, and Cole. Eventually each and everyone in our circle of Victors' and Rebels' children would watch them. And we all cried. Really. We had all cried.

I showed parts of those to my own children once they were old enough, just to give them an idea of how lucky we were to be born after the rebellion.

Throughout my life, they'd made lots and lots of movies revolving around the rebellion. Movies of all genres: action, romance, tragedy, all types. My aunt Katniss and uncle Peeta, by nature, had their own movie. And so did Junior's parents Finnick and Annie. And, to my then embarrassment, my parents. I suspect that movie was one of the reasons why my father was elected President at the next election after, though clearly not the only one. He made it happen, through all the good he'd done to redeem this Warlord he'd been when he was younger, and with the help of Uncle Peeta and Uncle Sven who'd sat with him every day for several months, discussing what exactly he should be standing for, what he could offer Panem. And with the help of my mother and Aunt Katniss and Aunt Prim, too, though these three were actually more of Devil Advocates than helpers.

Haymitch passed away a few years ago, at a ripe old age of eighty. His death saddened everyone in the family, and opened up one more secret box left by the rebellion and its aftermath. Included in his will was this tape, labelled with my father's name. The night after his funeral, Pa called my uncles and aunts and all of us Everdeen grandchildren to his study. We sat together holding hands, as we watched Grandma Everdeen's last moments as recorded by the surveillance camera in the Hovercraft she'd crashed in a bid to save her precious daughters and Panem from the rule of that tyrant Coin and her minion Heavensbee. Took us all a few hours to process this. By the end of the night, though, we've agreed to call in Cousin Ash to discuss something. We needed an amendment for that documentary book he wrote some thirty years prior to tell the world who Alma Coin and Plutarch Heavensbee were.

Several more pages were written afterwards, and the newest edition of that book now established my grandmother as the strong hero she was. More than just the broken, widowed mother Panem had always perceived her as. That made the headlines of everything, the year it was out. And apparently, inspired this young producer to make a new kind of rebellion movie, which was out last year.

It was about my mother and her sisters. Or more exactly, my mother and Aunt Katniss, with a little bit of Aunt Prim in the background. They were all invited to the Premiere, though at the end only Aunt Prim went. She came back telling us that all the characterization was off, except for one. After I'd watched it, I wholeheartedly agreed with her. Everyone was definitely a bit out of character - too nice and innocent, to be exact -, with the exception of Cousin Ash's wife Madge, who once liked my father too. And that was actually because she was that nice and near-saintly. Except when fighting with her fellow rebels, as the woman herself confessed.

Acting and characterization aside, I liked the movie. For it made me proud.

I was fortunate to be raised by The Miner's Daughters who changed Panem.

**The End**

* * *

**Final Author's Note:**

It all started one night in January 2013, when I picked up my tablet and started jabbing on the first chapter of this story. My intention back then was to write a long-oneshot, for I didn't quite have enough faith that I'd be able to finish up a multi-chaptered story. Soon, it became apparent that a long-oneshot would never suffice to describe all the ideas I had, and as new plot bunnies started jumping around in my head, I knew I had to give a multi-chaptered story a try this time.

"The Miner's Daughters" went with me everywhere. It went with me to work, for a morning walk, and even overseas for two weeks when I was on holiday. It became an obsession, a cause, something I fought hard for. The moment I typed in the last word - 'Panem' - was such a bittersweet moment of victory. Sweet, for now this story was told for everyone to read. Bitter, for I wasn't quite ready to part with this yet. But I knew that once it was written, that was it. They'd gotten their happily ever after, and Panem had been a much better place. There was no more conflicts and fights to be told, no more obstacles the Everdeen sisters and their loved ones had to overcome in order to be happy together.

I would like to thank all of you for your supports. Those of you who'd given this story a chance and stay with it till the end. Those of you who'd put this story on your story alert/subscription, encouraging me to write more for I knew there were people waiting for the next chapters. Those of you who'd shown your love for this story by putting it on your favourite list, bookmarking it, and giving it kudos. Those of you who'd put me on Author Alert and Favourite Author, giving me more faith of myself and my writing. And lastly but most importantly, those of you who have reviewed/commented on this story.

**The ff crowd:**

BatGirlTheMockingjay13, my first reviewer ever. You've given me faith in this idea, and helped this little thing evolving into a full story. Thank you.

LittleRed, dancer27, and meowskii, who've all reviewed this story in its early stage. I wish you were there to witness the happy dance I did when that review notification email landed in my inbox.

Aloha Jay, who's expressed such a great interest in the story. Your review was such a confidence boost for me.

Reviewer08, who've said they loved the story. Thank you.

peetagoreantheorem12 and rochitabels, who discovered this story in its later stage, and still kindly left reviews. You made me so happy.

nothing2000 and axes tridents and snares, my fellow Johanna fans and Johale shippers. Thanks so much for your support.

De-BardatBoston, who's made me so happy with their witty reviews and boosted my confidence in my writing. Thanks so so so much!

And last but not least, jc52185, ellie82, and Norbert's Mom, my constant, faithful reviewers. Your support meant a lot to me. There were times when I was close to giving up, doubting whether it was all worth it. But then I remembered all of you, and how you'd been waiting for the next chapter eagerly, and I was happy and writing again. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

**The AO3 crowd:**

ennui_deMorte, JennibroLawrence, halla, Randomness, ketbelle, Scoutchick104, AmyRose92. Thank you for your kind comments which encouraged me to write more.

MaidenAlice and KeetaEverlark, constant reviewers and mood boosters, who'd made me believe that what I wrote was good :).

And last but not least, my reviewer extraordinaire Ripe, whose sharp analysis of the plot and storyline, ideas, and opinions all helped me developing new plots for the story and opened the doors to possibilities I've never thought of before. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

**And everyone else who's reviewed/commented but didn't get mentioned because I was forgetful and only half-lucid after a nightmare oncall shift at work where one of the servers went cuckoo for no reason. Sorry, sorry, sorry; and thank you, thank you, thank you.**

There are still some outtakes left to be written from this - a homework for me to do - so expect that I'll still be writing for at least a while. Oh, and also, my two new stories: the fluffy geek story "Lines" and a darker canon divergence, "A Tale of Two Districts" - where I've moved Gale to District Seven in reverse to what I've done here, and parallelise his and Johanna's story at Seven with Peeta and Katniss's story at Twelve. Where I got the plot bunnies from, don't ask me - I don't even know. But they're there in my head, and thus I'll keep writing and doing my best.

Stay gold, you awesome peeps! May the odds always be in your favour :).

- N -


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